Rise From The Ashes
by xLiving Dead Girlx
Summary: Shadow meets someone who changes his life forever. But what happens when Eggman hatches a new plan for world domination? Can he be stopped? Will there be a price to pay? What about Sonic? Could a hero fall? Only time can tell. I am terrible at summaries.
1. Befores and Afters

Hello there! I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to look at this story. I haven't written fan fiction in years, so I hope I am okay at it. First of all, the genres in this are Action/Adventure/Drama/Tragedy/(slight)Humor with slight refrences to romance. In this story, there will be graphic violence later on in it and strong language. I also have not played Sonic Nextgen yet, so if I get some things wrong, please correct me. I hope you enjoy it, I had this story in my head for a long long time and I am so happy I am finally putting it on the internet! I promise the story will get better as it goes on. Also, I would like to have themes for the chapters and if there isn't one listed at the top of the page, and you think you know a good song that could be the theme of it, send it in a review for the story and if I think it fits, I'll put it in it.

I am only going to say this once, I do not own anything in this story except for a few characters and the plot. No characters like Sonic, Shadow, Amy, Rouge, Tails, Eggman, etc. Nor do I own any brands like Snapple, Coke, etc.

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Rise From The Ashes

Chapter One-Befores and Afters 

A black and red hedgehog is sitting on a overstuffed deep purple sofa. He is staring at the arm on the sofa and finally picks the little fuzz ball that has been on it, that thing had been bothering him since he woke up there. He stood up and walked into a bright yellow and white kitchenette which was less then four feet from where he was sitting. He smells the sweet scent of pancakes cooking. He always liked pancakes, the best tasting pancake he ever ate where the ones his good friend Rouge had made. They were always really good because there were no preservatives in them, well, at least not strong preservatives, like he was used to before. the hedgehog looked up at his friend making the pancakes, she was a white bat, she was still wearing her pajamas, pale pink short shorts and a white tank top that had two cherries on it. The hedgehog looked down and noticed she wasn't wearing socks _'Wow, her feet are big.'_ The bat spoke, not facing him, "Shadow, do you know where Julia went?" The black and red hedgeohg known as Shadow looked up, "No, Rouge...she's gone again?" Rouge sighed, "I guess so, I didn't see her when I woke up."

Julia is Rouge's aunt, she is her guardian. She was always out, Rouge and Shadow didn't exactly know where she would go and why, but Rouge always suspected she was out doing drugs, like before. Rouge frowned slightly as she flipped the pancakes, she remember one day when aunt came home around 4:30am, waking Rouge up.

Rouge was about the age of 10 at this time, she was sound asleep in her bed wearing little purple pajamas, wrapped in a thick pink blanket with red hearts on it. All the sudden she heard a loud bang and glass breaking. Rouge, frightened, stood up and grabbed a little red teddy bear and slowly walked to her bedroom door. She opened it about and inch and peeked out, afraid of what she would see. She saw a female chocolate colored bat wearing very revealing clothes, stumbling around the room, laughing very loud and snorted a couple times.That was Rouge's Aunt Julia. This was almost a daily ritual for Rouge and Julia; Julia would leave early in the morning, sometimes leaving a note, sometimes not, not be back for hours at a time, usually she was gone all day, and then she would come home, high and/or drunk really late at night. Julia would stumble around occausionally breaking things, then would eventually fall asleep, usually on the floor. Rouge would watch her for a few minutes, then lock her door so Julia couldn't get in. Rouge walked over to her bed, peeked under it and pulled out a little black photo album only big enough that one page would hold one picture, and on the front in gold cursive it said "Out Memories". She crawled under her blankets and opened to the first page, it was a picture of a male brown bat and a white female bat.

Those were Rouge's parents, Hector and Beanca. Rouge turned the page and the next picture showed Hector standing next to a hospital bed with a tired Beanca lying the the bed holding a baby Rouge. That picture was taken the day she was born. Rouge had taken after her mother's fur color and patterns, the only place she really had fur was on her head, but had her father's eyes. Rouge started to cry and turned the page to look at the next picture. She always looked at this photo album when her aunt came home like this. Not to mention that she missed her parents greatly, and she knew they would never come back. She was orphaned three days after her eighth birthday. She doesn't remember much from that day, except a caucasian human man dressed all black wearinga black ski mask came into her room that night at 1:37am and held her down with a gag in her mouth. Rouge was very scared, she kicked and tried to scream, but that did nothing, the man was too strong. Then she heard two loud bangs, she stopped moving because it shocked her. Another man, this one an african american came in the room, dressed the same as the man holding Rouge says "C'mon, lets get outta here!" The white man picked up Rouge and threw her in her closet and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Rouge waited for a minute before opening the door, making sure they were gone. She slowly opened the door and looked around, walking over to her bedroom, she dreaded opening it, but she knew something was very wrong, she slowly opened the door, eyes squeezed shut, then opened them abruptly and saw across the apartment, Hector and Beanca. Lying on the floor. In a puddle of blood. Dead. She ran over to them, shaking them, crying, "Mommy! Daddy! Wake up! Please wake up! Mommy! I promise I wpn't go through your jewelry anymore!" She hugged her mom, "please wake up..." Rouge heard the front door creak open, she looked up afraid it was the men again, but there was an elderly human caucasian woman standing there. Rouge got up and flew to the old woman and hugged her, unaware she got blood on the elder's white nightgown, "Oh, Mrs. Carraba! My mom and dad aren't--" Mrs. Carraba cupped her hands over her moth. She gasped "Oh my god! Rouge come inside!" They went the apratment next door. Mrs.Carraba sat on her plastic-covered khaki colored couch and put Rouge on her lap, picked up the phone and dialed 911.

"Rouge? Rouge? Rouge!" Shadow was standing next to her tapping her shoulder. Rouge quickly looked at him, "Oh, sorry, I must have spaced out..." Shadow threw her a concerned look and sat down the the table. Rouge dreaded to remember her parents funeral, so she decided to eat. She put the pancakes on two plate and put them on the table, she went to the refrigerator and got the maple syrup and strawberry syrup. She walked to the table and sat across from Shadow. She picked the strawberry syrup and put some on her pancakes and she spoke, "So, how are you today?" Shadow made a noise but Rouge was unsure what it meant. Shadow picked up the maple syrup and drown his pancakes in them, he always put alot on them, he was just use to putting alot on them because of how he used to eat them.

Shadow remember when he lived on the ARK with Professor Gerald and Maria Robotnik. They were his family to him. Gerald being his father and Maria his sister. Shadow also remembers how differently he acted, he was happier and smiled alot, joking and laughing, now he is (what a blue hedgehog calls him) the grinch. He was created on her 10th birthday. But didn't see her untill a couple weeks after. The doctors and scientists always did tests on him, making him run on treadmills, taking blood sample, subjecting him to certain conditions. After two and a half weeks, he was allowed to walk freely around the ARK, Gerald had introduced Maria and Shadow.

Shadow was sitting in a dentist-like chair with a doctor sticking a needle in his arm. He hated getting needles. After the doctor walked away, man elderly man with a thick gray mustache known as Professor Gerald went up to Shadow with a young blonde girl. gerald smiled, "Shadow, I would like you to meet my granddaughter, Maria." Shadow smiled and said "Hello Maria, how are you?" Maria smiled back, "I am great. And thank you for helping me." Shadow raised his right eyebrow, "Help? When?" Gerald answered, "Uh, see Shadow, I created you with a mortal body, but with immortal blood, and at top physical condtion. My Maria is very sick." Maria frowned slightly, Gerald ruffled her hair. "She has a rare genetic disorder called NIDS, an abbreviation for Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome. She can get very sick from the little things we normally don't get too sick from, like the common cold, and god forbid, the flu..." Gerald went on and Shadow didn't understand what half the words Gerald was saying even meant, especially 'new row a moon deaf fin shin see,' so he paid more attention to Maria, he could tell what Gerald was saying made her uncomfortable, when he noticed Gerard was done talking about the NIDS, Gerald lowered his glasses at Shadow and said "...Don't you agree?" Shadow had no idea what he was saying, so he just said, "Uhh, yea." Gerald smiled and took Maria's hand in his left and Shadow's hand in his right and lead them out of the room. They walked until they got to an apartment. Shadow never left the main labortory in which he was in. Gerald opened the door with a key and when Shadow saw the inside, he started wagging his tail. He never saw a place quite like it, there was soft looked long red chair in the room. Maria went over to it and climbed on it and started to jump on it. Gerald scolded her, "Maria! Don't jump on the couch!" Shadow thought to himself '_So thats what it was called? A couch.'_ Gerald picked up Maria and she started coughing violently, and spit a glob of green flem in the trashcan which was next to the couch. Maria ground and her face was sweaty. Gerald had a concerned look on his face. Maria coughs scared shadow, they were very loud and they didn't sound like her voice did, she he never saw someone spit that color, _She must be very sick._ Gerald carried Maria and motioned Shadow follow him, they went to a black and white kitchenette. Gerard reached in a white cabinet above a sink and pulled out a box, "Shadow, I am going to make pancakes. I think you will like them, they don't taste as good as the ones on eart because there are _alot_ of perservatives in it, but they taste fine just the same." Maria smiled and whispered to Shadow, "I _love_ pancakes."

Shadow broke from his thought when and looked up at an angry Rouge with her arms folded over her chest, "Did you even hear _one _word I _said?!" _Shadow looked at her and stuffed a whole pancake in his mouth and spoke muffled words. Rouge glared at him and rolled her eyes, she stood up and went to the refrigerator and got a glass bottle of snapple iced tea. She sat down by Shadow, already over the little fit she had. Shadow looked down slightly to the left, "I think I am going to leave today." Rouge swallowed her drink and looked at him, "Why? you can stay if you want, Julia doesn't care. And I like your company." Shadow looked at her, "Yea, but I have been here long enough as it is, and plus, I've been eatting all your food, thats what I do when I'm bored." Rouge said, "I don't care, You can stay if you want. And if you leave, you are probably just going to go to Sonic's anyway." Shadow folded is arms over his chest, "Why do you want me to stay so bad?" Rouge stood upand put her hands on her hips, "Because you are my friend! Thats why!" she took the plastic dishes, including his and took them to the sink and literally dropped them in there. She turned to him, "Shadow, you do have friends, you know? You do know this, and even though you don't want to admit it, Sonic is your friend too. if he wasn't you wouldn't go there!" She stomped out of the room and went in the living room and ploped on the sofa and turned on the news, a blonde woman was sitting at the ancor desk with a fake british accent. Rouge thought to herself _'that woman should really give up the fake british act, its old. And she's not british.'_ She felt the sofa sink slightly and looked to her left and saw Shadow sitting there looking at her, his expression unreadable, "I'm sorry." She smiled slightly and said, "Its okay." She turned to the televison and the 'british' lady spoke, "Its early June and the weather has already been scorching, all this week it has been in the lower 90's and later next week, it will be in the higher 90's. But tommorow it is going to rain cats and dogs and that will, hopefully, cool everything down a little bit. What do you think Charles?" It switched from the blonde woman to a man with brown hair infront of the weathermap, "Well Tina, its doesn't look good, it..." Rouge turned to Shadow, "Global warming, that has to be it. oh well, at least I have an air conditioner." Shadow said, "You know thats one of the causes of it, right?" Rouge nodded and turned back to the televison.

Shadow stood up and made his way to the front door, and put his hand on the doorknob and turned to her, "I'm leaving now." She looked at him, "So soon?" He nodded. She flew over to him and she hugged him,

"If you need to get ahold of me call my cell."

"Okay, I won't, though."

"If you do."

"But I won't."

She frowned and furrowed her brow, "_If_ you do."

Shadow gave up and nodded once, he opened the door and left the apartment. He walked down the brown carpeted stairs. He opened the door to exit the apartment and ran right into someone, "Wha-?" "Watch werr a fuck yur goin'! Oh, Chadow, hi, gemme tylenol." In front of his he saw Julia, he really didn't like her too much, seeing he clothes she is wearing, she still ahdn't come home from the day before, but she was carrying bags like she had been to the mall. She starts going through a pink bag, "I gah sumthin furr Roodge, think she'll like it?" She pulls out a red thong with a heart on the front. This made Shadow uncomfortable, "Uhhh, maybe." He starts to walk away and he hears Julia call to him, "Hey! I gah yoo sumthin, I think yool like it!" She pulled a long black trench coat out of a khaki colored bag she was carrying. She handed it to Shadow, he looked at it, he did like it, but he wasn't the kind of person to get excited about clothes, it was more the though that counted to him. He looked at Julia and she had a huge smile on her face, he could tell she was waiting for a reply. He put on a fake smile and threw it on, he said, "I like it alot, thank you." She hugged him in a deathgrip hug, "Ah new ya wood!" She let him go and she stumbled into the apartment building. He took the smile off his face and relaced it with a frown. Drugs again. He knew it. He shook his head and started to run for a while. Shadow's run turned into more of a skate, the jets on the bottem of his shoes were activated and he ran faster. He really did like the coat, earlier he ran past a clothing store saw his reflection in the mirror and and he thought he look pretty good with it.

He thought about what Rouge said earlier, she was right though; he keeps bouncing back and forth between Rouge's and Sonic's. They don't mind, they actually like him, he just feels guilty that he is going there, basically to get fed and sleep. He heard familar voice not far behind him, "Hey, nice coat, Shad! But ya do know its like 93 degrees right?" He slowed a little and the person running next to him was a blue hedgehog. Shadow was actually very glad to see him, but he faked it, "What do you want?" Sonic laughed, "Well, Mr. Grinch, I was wondering if you were doing anything today?" Shadow looked straight ahead, "No." Sonic ran in front of him running backwards to face him, "Great, you should come with me to my friend's house!" Sonic looked really excited, "Cool! Lets go to my place first, I need a drink."

Sonic and Shadow sped to Sonic's house. Shadow knew this house very well, for he would stay here for a few days to a week at a time, then would go back to Rouge's, he would bounce back and forth. It was a cute single house with yellow siding on it. Sonic opened the screen door and walked through the open wooden door. Sonic and Shadow walked in silence to Sonic's kitchen, at the sink was an older baby-blue female hedgehog two inches shorter than Sonic, wearing a little sleeveless white dress and big white boots and her quills weren't as long as Sonic's. Sonic went in the refrigerator and frown, "Mom, where's the coke?" The female said, "Oh, your father finish it before he went to work today." Sonic pulled out a Hi-C Fruit Punch juice box for himself and he threw one at Shadow, who caught it in his left hand. Shadow turned to Sonic's mother, about to do the ritual he normally did when he was there, "Marina, do you mind if I stay here tonight?" Marina smiled, "Sure! Sonic loves it when you stay over! He asked me the earlier today if you could." Sonic hugged his mother, "Mom, you're making me look like I'm gay!" Shadow said in a matter-of-fact tone, "No, you do that yourself." Sonic laughed, went over to Shadow and pulled Shadow into a 'manly' hug, "Ha, I love ya, man!" Shadow tensed up, he didn't like anyone hugging him other than Rouge. Shadow thought, _'This looks like its going to be a looong day.'_

The two hedgehogs, drinking their juices walked out of Sonic's house and walked next door to a brown, old looking house. They walked on the porch and Sonic knocked on the door. Shadow never was in this house before, he knows one person who lives there, thats it. The wooden door opened, a pretty caucasian woman in her early thirties was standing there, she had shoulder length black hair and dark brown eyes. She was wearing faded blue jeans, a dark blue Old Navy t-shirt and fuzzy pink bunny slippers. She spoke, "Hi Sonic! How are you?" "I'm pretty good, Marge." Wanna come in?" Sonic held out his arms, "Thats why I'm here!" She kneeled down and hugged him. Shadow doesn't know this woman, but he can tell she is related to sonic's friend. The two hedgehogs walked in the house, it looked alot better on the inside then it did on the outside. It had a homey feel to it. The furniture, Shadow could tell was very old, except the couch, that looked relatively new. The woman looked at Shadow and held out her hand for him to shake, he looked it, then causiously shook it. She flashed a pretty smile at him, "I know who _you_ are. You're Shadow, aren't you?" Shadow nodded. She dropped her hand, "Well, my name is Marjarie, but everyone usually calls me 'Marge.'" Sonic said, "Marge, can we throw our juice things away?" She turned to him, "You don't have to ask!"

Marjarie shouted up the stairs, in a loud, almost unpleasent voice, "Anney! Sonic and his friend are here!" A teenage girl came down the stairs and waved at them. Shadow thought _'Wow. She looks exactly like her mother.'_ Indeed she did. She was the spitting image of her mother except she was younger. But she had black and green hair, the green hair framing her face and she had icy blue eyes. She smelled of sweet perfume, she must have just sprayed it, it was pretty strong. She straightened out her short black skirt, and pulled her black t-shirt with a green heart on it down a little. Shadow noticed how high her socks were they were black and green striped up to her knees. She had a silver stud in the bottem of the middle of her lip (labret), and she had a silver barbell in her belly button. Shadow frowned, _'So unessessary.'_ Shadow knew this girl, he saw her a couple times with Sonic. He doesn't really know her, but he could pick her out of a crowd. Sonic smiled, "Well well well, if it isn't Foxy Roxy?" The human girl rolled her eyes, "Shuddup, short-stuff." She then looked at Shadow, "Hi Shadow." Shadow met her gaze, "Hello Roxanne."

Shadow, Sonic, and Roxanne just finished watching 'Ferris Builler's Day Off'. Sonic sighs and puts this arms behind his head, "No matter how many times I see that, I envy Ferris soooooo much." Shadow looked at him and raised his right eye brow, "You know this would never happen?" Sonic sat up straight, "Yea, it could!" "No, they would have gotten caught." "No, they wouldn't!" Roxanne watched like a tennis match and they debated for a while. After about 15 minutes of the boys fighting, Roxanne started getting really annoyed, she folded her arms across her chest. She crossed her left leg over the right and shook her left foot. It was something she did when she was annoyed. The two hedgehogs on her left were really aggravating, finally she spoke up; "Look, its an effin' movie, can we forget about it?" Sonic turned to her and his ears drooped slightly. He looked a little sad, "Sorry, Roxy." She didn't look at him, but shrugged her shoulders, Sonic didn't exactly know what that meant. Shadow just watched with a smirk on his face, he was sadistic, so he liked seeing Sonic sad. Sonic decided to change the subject, ears perked up, "Anyone want pizza? I'll buy."

Around 11pm, Sonic and Shadow decided they should leave. Sonic looked up at Roxanne, "See ya later, Roxy!" Roxanne kneeled down and hugged Sonic, "Bye, see you tommorow!" Shadow just waved at her, and she did the same. Sonic walked out his ears drooped slightly. Shadow walked next to him and they walked about 20 feet to Sonic's house. Sonic opened the screen door, then the wooden door. Shadow looked at Sonic and could tell he was tired, but something seemed to be bothering him, "Sonic, whats wrong with you?" Sonic's ears perked up, "huh? Oh, nothing, man I'm beat, running earlier made me tired all early. I'm going to bed, you can watch TV if ya want." "Okay." "G'night, Shad." Sonic walked up the stairs and disappeared. Shadow frowned, _'I hate when he calls me that.'_ Shadow layed down on the couch and fluffed the pillow and stayed up for a while, thinking. Just think. Eventually he fell asleep in a dreamless sleep. He hasn't had dreams in a while, he didn't know if he liked that or not. Little did Shadow know, his life was going to be very different then it is now.

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Whee! I'm done. Please keep reading, I promise the next chapter will be better. Read and review! I'll update really soon! Possibly one or two chapters tommorow! 


	2. Its Raining

Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Two-"Its Raining" 

Shadow woke up at 7:22am and looked around to see if anyone was up. Someone else was up; Marina was sitting on the floor, back leaning against the couch Shadow was sleeping on, and watching the Maury Povich show. She turns around and looks at him, "Oh Shadow, you're awake. You want breakfast?" Shadow nodded, he was pretty hungry. Marina stood up and got the wrinkles out her light pink nightgown, and picked up her empty coffee mug and went out in the kitchen. She came back and the coffee mug was full. She sat down and had an annoyed look on her face, "Oh shoot, I forgot." Shadow looks at her. She yells, "Sonic! Can you make you and your friend breakfast?" Shadow hears sonic grumbling words he couldn't understand, then he hears the refrigerator door shut and Sonic comes out with two slices of cold pizza. Marina looks at Sonic like he has two heads, "Sonic! How can you eat pizza for breakfast? You just had it yesterday!" Sonic says after swallowing a mouth full of food, "Mom, ya _know_ I can't cook!" Marina rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the television. Sonic mocked her rolling her eyes but made it Dramatic. Calmly, without even looking at him (and Sonic didn't know she noticed he did that), she says, "That's it, you can't go out today." Sonic, stuffing the crust in his mouth, then choking on it, and forcing it down, "WHAAT!? Why? What did I do?"

"You know what you did."

"But moooooooooooooooom—"

"I don't care."

"What did I dooooo?"

"Don't make me miss my show."

"Does that mean I can stay home from school today?"

"No."

"You are NOT the father!" Shadow looked at the television screen disgusted, _'How can someone have that much sex with so many people in the space of a week? Fucking whore.'_ When Shadow paid his attention to the bicker battle Marina and Sonic were having, he started to feel a little uncomfortable being in the middle of it.

"I gave you life and I could _easily_ take it away!"

"You know you won't!"

"You little jerk, you clearly mocked me!"

"No, I didn't! It was your coffee!"

"My _coffee_ didn't _mock_ me."

"No, I mean, you drink too much of it. It gets you paranoid."

Shadow decided he should probably leave, this was getting ridiculous. But he was disappointed he wasn't going to find out who fathered Lasiandra's baby. It was one of Shadow's guilty pleasures, the Maury show. He also liked Jerry Springer. Whenever he stayed over Sonic's house, Marina would always put it on, and when he would go over Rouge's whenever she would sleep late, go on an assignment at work, or just go out, he would put it on. He liked making fun of the people on the show in his head, because they are too far away to do it to their faces. Shadow finally took the first bite of his pizza. He didn't like cold pizza that much, he liked it warmer. He thought back to something that happened yesterday……during the commercial break, that is.

Around 4, they decided that's when they should order the pizza. Sonic picked his blue RAZR phone and looked at the menu for prices. He dialed the number for the pizza parlor and Sonic said into the phone, "Hi, I'd like to make an order……delivery. Yea, hold on." He looked at Shadow and Roxanne, "What'd'ya guys want?" Shadow shrugged his left shoulder, "I don't care." Sonic said into the phone, "yea, I want a large pepperoni pizza and, uhh… hold on." He looked at Roxanne, "What'd'ya want?" She said, "A green pepper, onion and tomato pizza." Sonic looked at her like she had two heads, "What? How are you going to ruin a good pizza with that rabbit food on it?" Roxanne frowned, "What? It's good and actually a little healthier for you then _pepperoni_!" Sonic said, "But it's gross." Shadow interrupted, "Just order it Sonic, the person is still on the phone with you." Sonic furrowed his brow at the black hedgehog. And he turned to the phone, he said with a grudge to his voice, "and a large onion, green pepper, and tomato pizza….that's it…….okay." He hung up the phone.

About 50 minutes later, someone was banging on the door. Sonic joyfully got up and opened the door, the pizza man looked annoyed, and said, "Does the doorbell work?" Roxanne yelled at the door, "Nah, it's been broken for years." The pizza guy handed Sonic the pizzas and said "That will be $24.50." Sonic gave him the exact amount and the pizza guy grumbled and walked away. Sonic had no concept of tips, he never gave tips, he wasn't mean, he would just forget.

Shadow finished his cold pizza and noticed Sonic and his mother stopped fighting, but Marina reigned triumphant, Sonic looked glum in the corner of the couch with drooped ears. _'That blue hedgehog sure gets into fights a lot. He is just too damn proud.'_

A few of minutes later, Sonic was in the same corner, but had a small bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. Shadow noticed when he heard a chip crunch. Shadow looked at him cock-eyed, "You're eating _again_?" Sonic said, mouthful of chips, "Wool, yea. Ahm ongry." Shadow was getting really bored, Maury was over and that stupid Greg show was on. Shadow didn't like it at all. He found it annoying and boring. Shadow stood up and said to Sonic, "I'm out." Sonic said, "Wha—why?" Shadow lied, "I need to run." Sonic jumped up, "Great, I can race ya!" Shadow didn't want him to, he wanted to be alone. Marina pushed him back on the couch, "Oh, no you don't. You got school. You're inside today. Which reminds me, you should get going." Sonic whined, "But I don't have to be in until eight!" "I don't care." Sonic's ears drooped, "Catch ya later, Shad." Shadow furrowed his brow, _'I hate him.'_ Shadow walked to the front door, opened it and without looking back, left Sonic's house. Shadow felt wind hit his face. He liked the wind, usually he didn't because it hindered his running, but today it was good, it has been really hot out lately. He looked up at the sky and noticed the sky was grey. He liked that too, the sun was blocked, so he wasn't going to be as hot. Looked to the broken down brown house next door and then sped his way down the street.

He ran for a couple of hours. He didn't know what else to do. He regretted leaving Sonic's house, how can he go back now? They would think he was using them for somewhere to eat and sleep, which he technically was. And he couldn't go back to Rouge's, he felt bad about his last visit, even though she was fine with it. _'I guess I am camping outside tonight.' _He just kept running, he didn't know where, he just did kept running.

A few hours later, Shadow found himself sitting on a bench in Cirrus Park. It started raining about 20 minutes ago. He hated the rain. Also, he had no where to go, so he sat under a bench under a tree. He was already wet; he could get much more wet. _'How could I forget that it was going to rain? The weather people were actually right for once.' _Poor Shadow just sat there. He closed his eyes, bowed his head, smirked and said aloud, "I should of stay at Sonic's."

Roxanne was so excited, today was the last day of school. She had been waiting nine months until this day, June 5th, the last day of school. She remembered her mother telling her to bring an umbrella to school because it would rain. She liked the rain, a lot actually, but just didn't feel like getting wet today. She didn't take her usual root home. She stopped at a Chinese take-out restaurant and bought a home-made iced tea. She loved them. She was in a joyous mood that day, since it was the last day. _'I can go home and take this gay uniform off.'_ She went to a catholic school, and her uniform was a light blue button up shirt, black tie, a black and blue plaid shirt, high black socks, and black dress shoes. She hated the shoes most of all, she wishes they could wear sneakers or boots, those shoes are so uncomfortable. She was walking down the street and say Cirrus Park _'If I cut through it, I will get to my house faster.' _She walked on the concrete pavement down the middle of the park, little did she know on a bench on the other side of the park, was a certain black hedgehog.

She walked down the path looked at the trees, she always liked these trees, she remember Sonic and her used to play here a lot.

"C'mon Roxy! Let's go on the swings!" shouted a little Sonic the hedgehog about the age of seven. He was a lot smaller, only about 2'5. Roxanne was a lot smaller too, she was only four foot, she was eight, and her hair was just black, she only had two ear piercings in each ear. Sonic sped over to the swings, and Roxanne ran over, no where near as fast Sonic, but then again, at the time, no one was. They both swung on the swings, laughing, just showing of how high they can go.

She smiled to herself as she heard the raindrops hit her big umbrella. She sometimes misses the good old days of when she was a kid, she didn't have to deal with some things as she does now. _'I can't believe me and Sonic have been friends for 10 years. Life is going by too fast…'_

Roxanne was walking and was half way through the park and saw a form sitting on a bench about fifty feet away. _'It's raining, why the hell are they sitting outside?' _She got closer and closer to the form with each step she took. She was ten feet away and lifted her purple umbrella so she could the person better, she whispered aloud to herself, "Shadow?"

She walked up to him, it appears he doesn't notice her. Roxanne finally decided to make her presence known, "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to go under a tree when its raining. You could get struck by lightning." Shadow looked more intently at the ground, knowing she was there, "I don't have a mother." She frowned slightly, "It's raining." Shadow didn't look up at her, "I can see that." She took off her black hoodie and laid it on the bench next to Shadow, and she sat down on it. She looked at him intently as he stared at the ground. He finally looked at her, "Why are you here?" She was taken aback slightly, she said as-a-matter-of-factly, "Well, I'm on my way home from school, you don't have to be grouchy." He said, "Why shouldn't I be? Its raining, and I'm wet." She put the umbrella over both of them, he said acidly, "Not like that will really help now." She furrowed her brow, she was getting more and more irritated by him by the second. She grudgingly said, "Look, I'm trying to be nice; you are by yourself, and you are not exactly happy. Not to mention soaked." Shadow spat, "Why do you care?" She didn't reply.

Roxanne felt genuinely bad for the hedgehog, he was more or less cranky (to say in a nice way), she could tell he was probably really cold, she was cold when she took off her jacket, and she isn't even wet. Not to mention, if he stays out here much longer, he might get sick. And lastly, seeing him here was a depressing sight. She decided to change the subject, "I guess you left Sonic's." Shadow looked at the ground, "…yea." _'Why the hell did I leave?'_ She had an idea, but wasn't exactly sure what he would say. She asked, "Hey, where are you staying right now?" He met her eyes, he thought _'Where am I staying? How does she know I don't live anywhere to go? Sonic must have told her I don't have anywhere to live. Bastard.' _"No where." She smiled slightly, "I know I don't really know you all that well, its cold and its raining, so would you want to come back to my house, dry off and get something to eat?" Shadow's ears perked up at this, he really wanted to get out of the rain, but he also didn't want this girl's pity. He looked at the ground, "No, I'd rather not. I don't need your pity." This was the final straw for Roxanne, she was just trying to be nice, and everything she said, he was nasty about it. She furrowed her brow and stood up and picked up her wet jacket, causing Shadow to have the rain fall on him once again. She spat back at him, "Fine, be like that. I am just trying to do you a favor, but I guess _you_ are the one doing _me_ favor by not coming, I don't wanna hear you bitch and moan about how hard life is anyway!" She walked away.

Shadow looked up again after she was about 10 feet away, she didn't look back. He kind of felt bad for the way he acted, she really was just trying to do him a favor, and he was just being an ass. A big drop of rain hit him right over him left eye. He looked up and it came from the tree. As soon as he looked up a drop of rain fell in his right eye. The rain was really irritating him.

Roxanne was walking and could help but have the black hedgehogs last words he said to her haunt her: ' "_I don't need your pity_." ' She wasn't trying to make him feel bad, but he made _her_ feel bad instead. _'Asshole.'_ She walked turned left and walked down Schiller Street and didn't feel alone. She looked to down, and out of the corner of her eye, right at her left, she saw black and red. She turned her head and saw Shadow walking next to her. She held the umbrella over both of them. Then she looked straight ahead again and smirked, she spoke aloud without looking at him, "So you decided to come." He looked up at her, "Yea, well, I don't like the rain." She smirked wider, "So you think you can deal with the pity?" She looked down at him. He could tell she was just joking, he smirked, "I can deal with it." She stopped smirking and gave him a half smile. She held out her half drunken iced tea, "Want any?" He looked at it, then her. She rolled her eyes, "Take it. What? Are you a germ freak?" He just blankly looked at her, he slowly took the drink, and put the straw in hi mouth and drank it. He really didn't like iced tea, but after all that running he did earlier and sitting out in the park for a while, he was pretty thirsty. He was unsure of her kindness, he really didn't know what to think, or if he could really trust her. Not that she really give him a reason for him to not trust her, he just has issues, and he knew that. They turned left down Almond Street. She said, "See? I didn't poison it."

She was banging on the door of her brown house, trying to look through the window on it, but curtains were on them on the inside, not that that really stopped her. She yelled "MOOOM!! Open the friggin' door!!" Shadow raised his right eyebrow, "You don't have a key?" She said aggravated, "No, I lost it. I know she's home, she gets back from work at two. And its 3:30 now." She started banging on the door again louder, then the door opened, and Marjarie was standing there, with her hand on her right hip, "Anney, stop banging, don't shit yourself." This surprised Shadow, he never heard Marina cursing at Sonic. Of course he heard Julia do it to Rouge, but she was a junkie, and wasn't her mother. It just surprised him, although he didn't show it. Roxanne and Shadow walked inside the house and stood by the door in the living room. She quickly said, "Sorry mom, can Shadow come in? Think he can eat here too?" Marjarie smiled warmly at Shadow, "Of course he can." She noticed his black trench coat was soaked, said held out her hand, "I'll throw it in the dryer." Shadow cautously handed it to her, she disappeared into the basement, then emerged again.

The three walked into the kitchen, Shadow was never in here, the only part of the house he saw the living room. This room had deep red paint on the walls and table was an old wooden table that must have been expensive when it was first bought. It had two matching chairs, one newer chair with green padding on it, and one that was a white plastic chair. All the things like the oven, refrigerator, sink, and cabinets looked old too, like something out of a fifties show. He put his left hand on the wall and looked at it; he liked red. Marjarie went in the refrigerator and got out a jar of Ragu tomato sauce and put in on the counter next to the stove. She opened in the cabinet and got on her tip-toes to reach a high shelf and got a box of uncooked noodles. Roxanne looked at Shadow, he seemed to like the wall, she thought that was a little weird but didn't let it faze her. She spoke, "Shadow, you like spaghetti?" Shadow looked at her, not dropping his hand, he nodded. Roxanne said, "Well, that's what it looks like we are having…" Shadow dropped his hand and looked at his feet. He hasn't had spaghetti since he was on the ARK. But he only ever had canned spaghetti. Almost everything he ate on the ARK was either canned or preserved. Actually most of the stuff he ate was precooked or ordered out, as at Rouge's and Sonic's house. Rouge only really cooked pancakes, because, frankly, she can't really cook. Except pancakes. He walked over to the table and sat down in the plastic chair, he watched Marjarie as she cooked. He never saw anyone cook uncanned spaghetti before. It fascinated him. Roxanne raised her left eyebrow at him, she thought that was really weird, _'Is he checking out my mom.'_

The doorbell rang. Marjarie said, "Anney, can you watch the food?" Roxanne nodded. Her mom walked out of the room to get the door. Roxanne sat down across from Shadow, he was still looking at food on the stove. He turned to her with a concerned look on his face, "Aren't you going o make sure it doesn't burn?" She leaned her elbows on the table, "Nah, it won't burn." Shadow looked back at the food and jumped off the chair, and he walked over to the stove. He clicked his heels and the jets on his shoes activated and this caused him to float. He floated high enough to where he could see the food. He smiled a little, he felt a little childish, but to him, this was exciting. He gingerly grasped the spoon and slowly stirred the food. He felt a something jump in his stomach. The food smelled pretty good. Shadow saw garlic powder next to him, he opened the container and sprinkled a little in the sauce. He mixed it and it started to smell heavenly. He felt happy, he helped make the meal, and it wasn't canned. Well, the sauce came from a jar, but it was more homemade the canned stuff he was used to.

Shadow heard Marjarie say, "Thank you, Shadow, for making sure it doesn't burn, even though that's Anney's job, I guess she's just too lazy." Shadow clicked his heels quickly and landed on his feet. He looked to Marjarie's right and saw a little girl who had chocolate brown hair and green eyes, she was about the age of eight. Roxanne stood up and Shadow walked over to them. Roxanne said, "Shadow, I'd like ya to meet my little sister, Emily." Emily smiled a toothy smiled and waved slightly, "Hello." Shadow simply said, "Hello." He didn't really know how to act with kids. He turned is gaze to the food and saw Marjarie the sauce into four bowls, the three sat down, Shadow last. Marjarie put a bowl in front of Shadow first, he looked at the food and his mouth started to water, it looked so good, the sauce on the noodles. It just looked good.

After everyone was finished eating (and Shadow's third bowl), Marjarie stood up and picked up the bowls and went to the sink. Shadow could tell by her voice she was smiling, "I can tell you liked the food, Shadow." Shadow didn't reply, he didn't really know what to say. Roxanne stood up and quickly scooped up Emily and made raspberries on her cheek. Emily squealed with laughter. Roxanne put her down, "Emmy, did you thank Cream's mom for driving you home?" Emmy smiled, "Mhmm." Marjarie and Vanilla were best friends in high school, and have been since. Emily and Cream became good friends since. Roxanne turned to Shadow, "I'll be back, I gotta change." She left the room, to go to her room and change out of her uniform into normal clothes.

They all were in the living room. Roxanne was wearing a black t-shirt with red writing that said 'CRUSH 40' on it, and dark blue jeans. For Shadow, it was awkwardly quiet. He didn't know any of them well, no he felt like he was intruding. Marjarie say, "Oh shit, I forgot! Anney, you got your report card today. Lemme see it." Roxanne looked a little nervous and got up off the couch, walked to the computer desk and next to it was her neon green book bag. She unzipped it and pulled out a piece of paper. She walked over to her mother and handed it to her. Marjarie looked over the grades. D, C, C, C, D, B. Marjarie handed it back to her, "Well, you did well in Biology. The C's are okay. The D's aren't great, but at least you passed." Roxanne was relieved her mother didn't get mad, or even worse; disappointed. Shadow really didn't understand how report cards worked, he didn't even go to school. All he knows is how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, read, and use big words….but he would never let anyone else know that.

Marjarie got bored with the television, so she went on the computer laying solitaire. Roxanne had been talking to Shadow about her day, she didn't know if he really cared, but she wanted to talk to him about _something,_ to try to get to know him better. "…..I guess not long after you let, Sonic came to my house and met me…"

Sonic was opened the unlocked front door of Roxanne's house and walked right in. He always did this, five days of the week, Monday through Friday, this was a daily ritual. Roxanne kept in unlocked for Sonic to come in. Emily was up first, she was wearing pink and white Powerpuff Girl pajamas and her hair wasn't brushed yet, she was watching PB&J Otter on the Disney Channel. When she saw Sonic walk in, she said "Morning Sonic, Anney should be down soon." Sonic went to the steps and yelled in a mock girlie voice, "Anney! When you come down, can you do my hair? It needs to be curled!"

Roxanne was in her room, she heard Sonic teasing her, so she hurried up a bit, she put the black tie around her neck and tied it. She picked up her eyeliner and put in on under her eyes. Then she picked up her black eye shadow off of her television and applied it. She put on glittery lip gloss. Before she left her room, she made sure her shirt and skirt where straight and unwrinkled. Roxanne's room was at the top of the steps and he saw her open the door, she was clad in her uniform, except for the shoes, tie (which was in her left hand), her hair was pulled in a tight pony tail and the green hair down, framing her face.

Sonic was dressed in the uniform too. Basically the same as hers, except he wore long black pants and he got away with wearing his red and white shoes. She came down the steps and Sonic couldn't help but smile. He put his hand on his hip teasing her, (in the girlie voice), "Oooh, you look gawgiss, can you curl my hair now?" Roxanne put her hand on her hip and smirked, "Can we just go now?" Sonic let go of the act and nodded. Roxanne hugged her little sister and the two friends left off to school.

Shadow actually paid complete attention when she was talking to him. Usually he would space out if someone bored him. But she didn't, he was actually interested in everything she had to say. She laughed a little as she spoke now and said, "Oh my god, did you ever see 'Chao in Space?' " Shadow said, "No, but I've seen posters of it around outside." She got up and walked to a bookcase filled with videos and DVDs, "You have to see it, it is the worst movie I ever saw!" Shadow furrowed his brow and his left ear twitched, "If its horrible, why do you want to see it?" She found the DVD and turned to face him. Emily's eyes got wide as well as her smile, she squeaked, "Are we going to watch it?" Roxanne opened the DVD player, "Mhmm."

Two and a half hours later, the credits for the movie were rolling, Roxanne was roaring with laughter, Shadow was chuckling a little and a huge smile plastered on his face. Finally, Roxanne calmed down, to a little chuckle, "I love that movie, its so horrible." Shadow agreed, "I can't believe you _actually_ bought it." "Hey, it was on sale at Pathmark for $5.99, I had to." "The special effects were horrible." "And the acting was even worse." Emily piped up and was angry "Hey! I like that movie! It isn't horrible." Roxanne laughed at her sister, "Well, of course _you_ do, its _so_ juvenile! Hey Shad, what about when Koka died!" Shadow laughed, "Oh, you mean the red chao that had the 'dramatic' death scene?" Roxanne laughed, "Yea," she acted all dramatic, " 'Oh, Rupa! You must go on! The fate of Mars depends on you, you must get the healing fruits to the sick chao on there, then, only then can you return to earth! I- I-" she pretended to be dead. Shadow laughed, "That was the worst movie I ever saw." She smiled, "You should see the sequel." "Oh god."

At about eight o'clock, Emily started getting sleepy, she was lying on the floor with a purple fox doll. Roxanne was getting bored with the television. She got up and walked to the front of the TV and turned to Shadow, who was still sitting on the pale blue and pale yellow couch. "Hey Shad, you like video games?" Shadow never really played video games before, "Uhh, I don't know…" She pressed the 'ON' button on the purple Gamecube, "Well, lets find out."

They were sitting in front of the TV indian style, playing 'Super Smash Brother Melee' for three hours. Shadow is a fast learner; at first he didn't do well, (he didn't even know how to make the character jump), but he learned fast. He was playing as Bowser and she was playing as Zelda. Shadow lost again to Roxanne. He started getting annoyed, "Something is wrong with the controller, its not working, I keep losing!" She smirked, "Maybe you just _suck."_ "Hmph! I don't suck!" "Oh really? This is like the eighth time you lost to me? Should I go easy on you?" "That's it! I challenge you to a rematch!"

After another couple hours of playing, they got bored. Emily fell asleep on the couch three hours ago. Marjarie came out of the kitchen with a glass of brandy and looked at the clock, it was 1:19am. She didn't realize how late it was, "Uh-oh, its really late!" (She took a sip of the alcohol) "Shadow, did you want me to drive you home?" Shadow turned to her from the floor, "Uhh, umm—" Roxanne answered for him (because she knew he didn't have a home), "Mom, can Shad sleep over tonight? Its late and all." Marjarie looked at her drink, "I guess he can." She downed it.

Roxanne got up and ran up the stairs, came back down seconds later with a white pillow and a blue-gray blanket. She threw them at the hedgehog, "You can use these, I'll pull out the couch." She went over to the couch and took off the cushions and unfolded the mattress out of it. Roxanne picked up Emily and went to the foot of the stairs, turned to Shadow and said, "I am going to put her to bed, then I'm going to bed, sorry, but I woke up early today, so I'm tired." Shadow mumbled, "Its okay." She smiled, "G'night." He said, "Good night." She went upstairs and not much longer after she did, Marjarie went upstairs too. Shadow laid on the couch, fluffed the pillow and pulled the blanket over him. He closed his eyes and said aloud, "That wasn't so bad." He opened his eyes when he realized something; _'I didn't get mad when she called me 'Shad.' '_


	3. Confessions

Hello, its been a while since I updated. No one has been reading this, so I guess it doesn't really matter. Please someone read it! I am working so hard to write this and I feel its for naught. Oh well, read and review.

Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Three-Confessions

Shadow woke up early, like he usually did. He woke up about 6:15am the next day. He looked around, and he heard noises upstairs. Less then five seconds later, Marjarie came running downstairs in a red dress-suit, with a red purse with a name tag that read 'Marge Addley'. Shadow sat up, and when she saw he was awake, she said, "Oh, sorry if I woke you up, I'm going to be late for work….have you seen a silver cell phone?" Shadow shook his head, why should he care? She said disappointedly, "Oh well, I guess I won't have it today." She smiled at him, "I guess I'll see you when I get home?" Shadow didn't know, he didn't know if he was going to stay much longer. Marjarie (still looking in her purse) went out the front door without locking it behind her.

Roxanne was laying in bed, her dark purple blanket with hot pink stars on it wrapped around her, her head on her matching pillow, she was sound asleep. She was like this for a couple more hours until someone stepped on her stomach, or more jumped. She winced and looked up, "Arrrraa! What the fuck?! EM?!" Emily, in her Powerpuff pajamas was jumping on Roxanne's bed, "ANNEY ANNEY!! WAKEY WAKEY!!" Roxanne sat up and pushed her little sister off of her bed, "Em, what the fucks wrong with you? I was sleeping!" Emily calmed down and looked sad, "But your friend is downstairs. Don't you want to play?" Roxanne combed her knotty hair with her fingers, and tiredly said, "Wha? Em, whadder you talking 'bout……oh... Oh yea." She threw her blanket off of her onto the other side of the bed, causing it to hit the wall against the bed. She got up and pulled her plaid pajama bottoms down slightly so they were around her hips and fixed the strap on her black tank top. She went in front of the mirror and said aloud, "I look like shit."

It was about 8:20am, Roxanne came down the stairs, brushing her hair with a silver brush. She saw Shadow on the couch watching TV. She said, "Hey." He replied, "Hullo." She looked at the TV and (none other than) Maury was on. She raised her right eyebrow, "You _actually_ watch this crap?" He turned to her, furrowing his brow, "Its not crap." She turned to him, "Yea it is, it's the same friggin' thing every episode: 'You are NOT the father! You are NOT the father! You are NOT—Same effin' thing." Shadow started getting annoyed, "No it _isn't."_ Roxanne didn't feel like arguing about something as stupid as this, "Whatever, I'm getting something to eat." She got up and went to the kitchen, but stopped in the doorway and turned her head to face Shadow, "You want anything?" Without looking at her, he shook his head.

Shadow finally found out who Lasiandra's baby's father was. He felt accomplished. Why? He didn't really know, he just did. He got up and walked out to the red kitchen and saw Roxanne sitting at the table on the green cushioned chair, eating a pink poptart. He sat down across from her and folded his hand and spoke to her, "I just wanted to thank you for letting me spend the night here. I know I don't really know you but I want you to know it means a lot." She finished her poptart and said, "Hey, its cool. So we're friends, right?"

Shadow paused. He didn't know. She was probably one of the first people who he felt almost comfortable around almost immediately. That technically doesn't make her a friend though. He liked her presence though; she put him at ease, and he felt like he didn't have to act all 'tough' around her. She didn't really annoy him like a lot of other people who considered themselves his friends. Her voice was soothing too. She was a little arrogant, but then again, who wasn't? Shadow hoped he didn't make a mistake.

"Yes," he said. Roxanne leaned back in the chair and smiled the same pretty smile her mother has. She put her mid-back length hair behind her ears. She crossed her arms and her smiled turned into a smirk, "How come you didn't get mad when I call you 'Shad.'" Shadow's ear twitched, "Why would I get mad?" She looked at her red nails, "You sure get mad when Sonic does it." He frowned, "I don't get mad. I could care less." She laughed, "I can see it in your face when he says it. And by your body language. But I don't mind, it's amusing in its own way." Shadow didn't reply, but decided not to let it bother him. He took off his gloves and wiped his forehead, "Damn, it's fucking hot today." Roxanne thought it was hot too, but was too lazy to do anything about it. "Ya want the air on?" He nodded. She got up, went into the white living room and went over to a window that had a view of the back yard, but couldn't se it because of an air-conditioner in place. She turned it on high and went back into the kitchen. Relaxing a little, she said, "So, are you going to stay here again tonight?" Shadow looked up at her, "If it at all possible." The phone began to ring. Roxanne got up to answer it, but before leaving the room, she said, "Eh, my mom won't care." She left the room. Shadow smiled, "Well, that takes care of that."

It has been two weeks since this conversation had taken place. Shadow was still at Addley household. And things couldn't be better; Shadow and Roxanne had become best friends and Emily became less rambunctious. But most importantly, Shadow started to let go of the past. Sure, after he defeated the Black Arms, he said that, but it wasn't as easy as it sounded. He wasn't as cold. He actually started to laugh and smile more. Just like how he use to be when he was with Maria. Although she wasn't like Maria. Maria was quiet, Roxanne is loud. Maria was respectful, Roxanne is said what was on her mind. Maria didn't like seeing others suffer, Roxanne is sadistic. In fact, the only thing they did share was they were kind, caring, Shadow's best friend, and they knew how to make him smile. Shadow didn't regret telling Roxanne she was his friend that day. Everyday Shadow planned on leaving, but Roxanne or Marjarie would tell him he can stay how ever long he wants. So he does. Not so he can have a place to sleep or food to eat, but so he can be with his friends. He was still the same Shadow, but he was warmer.

Today was Marjarie's day off and she was about to take Emily to Vanilla and Cream's house. She was wearing a pale green sleeveless dress and Emily was clad in a white shirt with a smile face on it and black jeans. Marjarie put her silver cell phone in her black purse and said to Emily, "C'mon Em, lets go." She turned to her older daughter and Shadow, "I'll be back later…. Oh, and Shadow, whats your favorite color?" Shadow raised his left eyebrow, "Uhh, red. Why?" "Great! See you later!" They left leaving Shadow puzzled. The phone started ringing and Roxanne got off the couch and by the computer desk was a black cordless phone, she picked it up.

"Hey hey! Foxy Roxy!"

"Hey short-stuff. How's it hangin'?"

"Low and lazy."

"Eww, you're gross."

"So's your face. Whaddaya doin' today?"

"Shad's here."

"Want extra company?"

"No, I want you to stay home."

"Oh…"

"I'm kidding, ya douche.

"'kay, I'll be over in a flash."

Click.

Roxanne put the phone on its ringer. Shadow came out into the living room with a look of question on his face. She said, "Sonic's coming over. I'll be back, I got to get changed." She went up the stairs. As soon as she went up the steps, there was a loud knocking at the door. Shadow frowned slightly and opened up the door. Sonic was standing there with a bright, happy look on his face. "Hey Shad, whats shakin'?" Shadow completely frowned, _'That's it. My day is ruined.'_ Sonic made his way into the house looking around. "Where's Roxy?" Shadow walked over to the couch and coffee table and picked up the newspaper that was on it. He liked keeping Sonic in suspense. He hoped on the couch and flipped through the paper, hiding his face behind it. He blankly stated "She's upstairs." Sonic sat on the couch next to Shadow staring at him. Shadow wasn't looking at his blue friend but could tell he was looking at him. Finally, after he got annoyed enough he dropped the paper from his view, to show he was looking at Sonic directly in the eyes with a look of pure irritation on his face, "What?!" "I'm glad I introduced ya two." Shadow's left ear twitched, "Why?" "Well, you two are friends now, and ya two are my friends!" Shadow just stared blankly at him, _'His stupidity amazes me.'_

Shadow smelled the sweet perfume Roxanne used, he looked to his right and in the chair next to him was Roxanne. Shadow looked at Sonic, clearly he didn't notice her come down the steps either. [Roxanne's hair was half up, half down, and her green hair framing her face. She wore a _very_ short red and green plaid skirt and a black tank top with a purple robot on it. She had light pink socks on with purple leg warmers. She had black eyeliner on and dark purple eye shadow. Sonic smiled and said, "Skank." She got up and (playfully) smacked him in the side of the head. She turned to go back to her chair and he kicked her in the butt. The phone started to ring. She stomped her foot and through gritted teeth said to Sonic, "You are _so_ lucky the phone is ringing." "Yea, yea, yea. Whatev." She walked over to the computer desk to get the phone. "Hello?...oh….okay, uh.. hold on." She took the phone away from her head and faced her two hedgehog friends, "Hey, its my mom, I'll be back." She walked past them with the phone, went up the stairs and started talking again.

Sonic watched her go upstairs. Shadow quickly looked at Sonic. Shadow's right eye twitched, _'Did he just do what I think he did? Yea! He did! That son of a--!' _"Sonic!" Shadow raised his voice. Sonic looked at Shadow, his right ear twitched, "What?" Shadow pointed an accusing finger at him (quieting down a little), "Did you look at her ass?" Sonic's ears drooped slightly and he waved his hands as if telling him to calm down, his face slightly pink, "Wha-? No! No, w-why would I?" Shadow squinted at him, "You did." "No I did not!" "You do it again and you'll have no eyes to look at her again." Sonic gave up, his ears flat against his head, his head bowed, face red, and shuffling his red and white shoes, more fascinated with the gold buckle on it then anything else. Shadow looked at Sonic with an angry look on his face, then his expression softened, then turned into a smirk. _'Now I have something to use against him, ha.'_

Sonic was still staring at the gold buckle on his shoes, still in the same pose he was in when Shadow 'caught him in the act.' Sonic looked up at Shadow with a fake smile on his face with ears still flat against his head. "Hey Shad?" "What?" "We're good friends right?" (This reminded Shadow of Roxanne and of her sincerity. Maybe Sonic was sincere in the things he said. Even though he was annoying at times, he considered Sonic a friend, well, more than he would let on.) "Yes, why?" "Well— (Sonic looked up at the Stairs to see if Roxanne was coming down) Umm, since we are friends, I can trust you? Enough to keep a secret, right?" "Yea" _'I already know what the secret is, I'm not goddamn stupid.'_ Sonic twiddled his thumbs, talking very quiet, which was awkward for Shadow because he was used to Sonic being loud and arrogant, now he is quiet and humbled. He just wasn't used to it. "Well, me and Roxanne have been friend for 10 years. Out of all my friends, she is prolly my best girl friend. I remember the first day we met…"

Sonic was five years old, it was December 13th. He was in Mrs. Fiskle's kindergarten class. Mrs. Fiskle was a cranky old lady who wore bright pink shawls, had white hair, and all the children would call her a hunchback. He was barley 2'2. His large eyes and ears where common in hedgehogs his age. It was 9:02am, not that he knew though, he was playing with a little toy green car. "VROOM VROOM VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" He made the zoom. It went towards the door. Little Sonic went to retrieve it and he looked out of the classroom's open door and saw people out there. He saw a woman who was 22. She had the same shoulder length black hair as she does now, she was wearing tight black pants with a white sweater with a pink snowflake on it. She was talking to Mrs. Fiskle, and behind the woman with black hair was a little girl, hiding behind her mother, clinging to her leg, looking very scaredly into the classroom. She was about 3'3 and had long black hair that reached her backside, and she had icy blue eyes. She was wearing blue jeans and a long-sleeved purple shirt with a red shirt with a white snowflake on it. Sonic looked at her, gave her a big smile and waved excitedly. Sonic loved meeting new people. The girl hid behind her mother even more, hiding her face. The mother kneeled down and hugged her young daughter, gave her a hug and a kiss and left. The girl had no where to hide now, Mrs. Fiskle lead her into the classroom, oblivious to the girl's obvious fear. She stood in front of the class with her hands on the girls shoulders. In her honey-sweet acidy voice, she said, "Okay children, we have a new student in our class today. Her name is Roxanne Addley. (She squeezed the girls shoulders) She moved here all the way from Florida!" The kids just looked at her blankly. Roxanne hid her face behind her long black hair, embarrassed to even be there. "Now, lets see, where can you sit…?" Everyone got into their seat and put their book bags on the empty seats next to them. Sonic pulled out the chair next to him and loudly said in his high pitched voice, "She can sit here!" Mrs. Fiskle adjusted her glasses and squinted in Sonic's direction, "Ah, yes, Ms. Addley, you can sit over there." Roxanne (her head still lowered) walked over to the table Sonic and two others where at. She sat down and Mrs. Fiskle began to teach them the same thing she taught them three days in row. Sonic looked at Roxanne and smiled, "Hi! My name is Sonic!" She mumbled, "….hi…" Sonic brightly said, "You came all the way from Florida? I heard its really hot there." Roxanne mumbled, "You get use to it." Sonic said, "Have you ever gone to school before?" Roxanne slightly shook her head. A white cat that was sitting at the table too leaned close to Roxanne looking at her as if she was an alien. Roxanne looked up slightly met the male cat's pink eyes. He said in a dull voice, "Are you a hillbilly?" She lifted her head up all the way and didn't hide her face anymore, "No! I am not a hillbilly! I've been to Disney World!" A pink puppy girl looked at her with dazzling purple eyes and gasped, "You've been to _Disney world?!"_ Roxanne smiled slightly, "Mm-hmm." "Is there really a big castle there?" "Mm-hmm." "Does Cinderella _really_ live there?!" "Mm-hmm." The puppy squeeled and everyone looked at her and caused Mrs. Fiskle to have to stop teaching. She pursed her lips and continued, "Now 'F' comes before the 'G,' and…." Sonic turned to Roxanne and saw smile, he was glad to see she didn't seem scared anymore. Sonic said, "Do you want to be my friend?" Roxanne looked at him blankly and nodded.

Shadow just stared at Sonic as he told him the story. It wasn't exactly going where he thought it would. Sonic continued, "Then when I was 11, when I first defeated Eggman, she was the only person I told I planned on taking him down. Heh, you should have been there."

Sonic was 11 and Roxanne was 12. This is back when Station Square was still standing, they were in The Burger Shop. Sonic had a King Burger (basically a Big Mac or Whopper) and Roxanne had chili fries. Sonic was 3'0 now and she was 5'1. The hair framing her face started to grow green earlier that year. She took a sip of her coke and looked at Sonic, "What's wrong with you?"

Sonic sighed, "Nothing."

"You're lying."

"…I know."

"So what's wrong?"

"…what if I just disappeared and didn't come back?"

Roxanne stopped eating, "….why?"

He sighed, not looking at her, "You heard about that guy Dr. Robotnik?"

"Yea, but the government will get rid of him."

"What if they can't? And what if I can?"

She eyed him suspiciously, "How could you be able to stop him and not the government?" She took a sip of her soda.

"You know how I like to run? Well, the best place to run is Green Hill behind the city a few miles."

"Yea…?"

"Umm, I was running there for a while and I saw him. I recognized his face from pictures on the news, and he was releasing robots, and since I'm fast, I can take him, I think…"

Roxanne dropped her fry, she just stared at him. She furrowed her brow. She got up and looked at him and walked out of the restaurant. Sonic watched her for a second, then got up and followed her. She went down an alley next to a door a couple stores away. Sonic followed her, she stopped, her back to him. He said, "C'mon Roxy, you know it's the right—" Slap. She turned are and slapped him. He seemed unaffected by it, so she slapped him again. She had tears in her eyes. Sonic's ear's drooped. She made fists out of her hand and kept them at her side. "What. The _fuck_ are you thinking?! Are you really going to do this? Are you fucking serious? You will get killed! He's a terrorist! Y-you can't! You--!" She kneeled down and hugged her friend, she cried even more. She was scared for his life. "Don't try and be a hero! You are gonna die! Just—Just stay here, it will get taken care of!" He wrapped his arms around her, ears flat against his head, "But, Roxy, I—" "Please! Don't! For me, please don't! For me, just for me! Please!" Sonic closed his eyes. He knew what was right now.

He had to do it. "For her", if she didn't say that, he probably would have stayed, and then who knows how the world would have turned out. He did it, for her. If she cried, she knew it must be bad, so Sonic wanted to make the bad go away. He saved he world. And he did it for her. He didn't want anything to happen to her. From that day on, Sonic was in love with Roxanne.

Sonic looked at Shadow, his ears only slightly drooped now. His eyes 1/3 shut with a small smile on his face. Shadow didn't look at Sonic, he couldn't. He never saw this side of Sonic before. It made him respect Sonic a little more. Sonic was pouring his heart out, it made Shadow feel bad. For the way he treats him, what he thinks about him, it was wrong. He isn't just some arrogant git; he had layers in his soul and this was one of the many Sonic had. Shadow knew Sonic was definitely attracted to her, but he didn't think of it more than anything physical. From what he did for her, what he still does for her. So every time Sonic saves the world, he does it for only one person? This amazed Shadow.

Sonic laughed slightly, "Heh, why do you think I always ran from Amy?" "Because she is annoying." "Well, sometimes." Sonic's smile faded, "She means everything to me…but…" Sonic turned around and got up and walked into the red kitchen. Shadow got up and followed. Sonic was by the back door leading to the yard. He looked at the big blue and red trampoline, something to distract him. Shadow's ears drooped a little, he slowly reached out and put his hand on Sonic's shoulder, "Sonic…?" Sonic turned slowly and looked at Shadow, Shadow expected to see Sonic cry, but he didn't. He just looked really sad. Sonic looked at the ground and mumbled something, but Shadow couldn't make it out. "Huh?" "…but she doesn't love me…" Shadow scratched the back of his neck, this was really awkward, it was a if this wasn't Sonic at all. Sonic could tell this was different for Shadow, "Umm, tell Roxanne I got to go… make something up." Shadow nodded once and did something he didn't expect, he hugged Sonic. Not in a manly hug, but to comfort him. Sonic hugged back and they heard Roxanne coming down the steps, Sonic opened the back door and he sped off. Shadow heard Roxanne yelling, "Where are you two?"

Shadow emerged from the kitchen and didn't look at Roxanne. "Shad, what's wrong?" Shadow had to make up something quick. "He-he had the shits!" Her right eyebrow twitch, "What?" "He had the shakes, he didn't feel good, so he had to leave." "Oh, well, I'll call him later to see if he's okay." Shadow felt bad about lying to her, but it was for the best. She took the rubber band out of her hair and let her hair down. Shadow's left eye twitched.

At 6pm on the dot, (Shadow and Roxanne just finished watching Chao in Space 2, which they laughed even more at then the prequel.) Marjarie and Emily came home. Emily had a squirming white and gray kitten in her arms. Emily ran up to the two, hugging the kitten to hold it, "Anney, Slim Shady, look Vanilla found this kitten and she gave it to me!" (Emily started recently calling Shady 'Slim Shady' when she heard someone say it on TV. He didn't mind.) The little kitten couldn't have been more then 4 months old. (It was white and had gray ears, a grey tips tails and tipped feet, and a big gray circle on its back.) "I named it Dot-Dot! See? It has a dot!" She pointed at the kitten circle. Roxanne frowned at it and yelled at her mom, "Mom! I've been asking you if I could have a Chao for years, and you said no! But you let her have a kitten!" Marjarie put her keys on the computer desk, "Anney, I'm not getting into this." "Whatever," she slumped in the couch and crossed her arms over her chest. She mumbled to Shadow, "I did, I've been asking _her_ since I was her age!" She pointed at Emily petting the kitten, she finally let it go.

Clink. Clank. CRASH! All their heads snapped and looked at the window with the air-conditioner. Or rather, where it _was_. Marjarie ran over to the window and the air-conditioner was on the ground in pieces. She slammed her fist on the window sill, "Goddamn it!"

It was 2:08am and Roxanne came into her room with 4 blankets and laid them out on her floor. It was way too hot for Shadow to be sleeping downstairs, and the only ones that had air-conditioners in them now were the bedrooms. Shadow walked into Roxanne's room and it was basically like he expected. A room with different colors of nail polish and make-ups on the dresser, posters, and a TV about a foot tall. It smelled of her sweet perfume she always wore. She threw one of her pillows on the floor on the blankets, Shadow looked at it, then her. "What? I'm tired, I'll talk for a little, but I'm tired." Shadow sat down Indian style on the blankets.

It felt so much better in her room then it did downstairs, the temperature went up to 103 degrees, but it was a dry heat so it wasn't as bad as it could be, but it was still hot.

Shadow noticed there was a book underneath the TV stand and he pulled it out, it was a photo album. Roxanne looked at him and smiled, "Oh, Shadow, sit up here, I can tell you who everyone is and stuff." She stood up and hopped on her bed and he opened the album, the first picture was of Marjarie when she was younger. And pregnant. She was about Roxanne's age here and they looked exactly the same. The picture was oblong as if it was cut a certain way. Roxanne pointed to that picture, "Oh, this is my mom. She was pregnant with me. She was 17." Shadow looked at the picture harder, "She was so young…" "Yep, she says she made a mistake… Next to her _was_ my father, but she hates him, so she cut every picture of him out. Shadow looked up at Roxanne, "It must have been hard on you and Em." Roxanne sighed, "Not really. I never lost nor gained anything, so I don't care. But it would be nice to have a father… Oh! But my father isn't Emily's dad. No, Em's dad is my mom's boyfriend. Uh, or her on and off boyfriend. This guy named Arnold Madden. That's why Em has brown hair and green eyes, and his smile. I don't think you ever met him, he's cool. Right now though, they are on a break. But they will get back together, they always do." Shadow turned the page, it was another pregnant Marjarie, but this picture wasn't cut in any way, it had a woman with black hair that reached her backside who was wearing a chocolate brown dress. The other was a green, dark green and white male cat. Roxanne pointed at the people, "My mom, my Granmom, and my Poppy. Them two are dead. That's where I got the green hair from, my Poppy had it." He turned the page. "That's me, that's when I was a day old." Turned the page, "My mom cut my dad out of this one too, I wish she could have kept at least one, I would love to know what he looks like." Turned the page, Shadow felt his stomach do a back flip; this picture was of young Roxanne holding Emily when she was a baby, with Sonic next to her. "Oh, this is my favorite, this is me, I was eight, this is Em, she was a week old there, and that's Sonic, he was seven. He was so excited when my mom was pregnant, you would think it was going to be his sister." Shadow seriously said, "Well, that scenario is practically right because he is over here all the time." He felt bad because he thought back to earlier today, with his and Sonic's talk.

He also felt bad that Roxanne didn't know her father. Well, he didn't know his mother either; his father was an alien and his mother had to have been a hedgehog since he was one, but the thought sickened him. But that didn't matter to him, really. The people in his life that mattered the most was Gerald, Maria, Roxanne, Marjarie, Emily, and surprisingly, now Sonic.


	4. Run

Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Four-Run

It has been two months since that day. Marjarie and Arnold were back together. Today Shadow got to met Arnold. Shadow couldn't believe it; he had been there for two and a half months. He never spent that much time, not even at Rouge's. He could never be happier! Although, he still held Sonic's secret with him. Surprisingly, the two haven't spoken of it since that day. Sonic now had come over every day.

The second floor of the house constantly smelled of paint. On the second floor, there was a total of four rooms; Marjarie (and sometimes Arnold's) room, Emily's room, the "messed up" room (which was an empty room that had ugly gold, peeling wallpaper, the floor was unpolished wood), the bathroom, and Roxanne's room. 80's music was coming from the "messed up" room, and the door was locked. Roxanne smirked, "I guess mom's finally fixing up that room. I wanted that room when I was little, it is smaller than mine, but mine is too big, I think…" She just started to trail off, Shadow didn't like the smell of paint.

Dot-Dot grew a little bigger and her circle became more of an oval. Emily was playing a Kirby game on the Gamecube. She skipped dinner because Marjarie bought her that game earlier that day. Marjarie is so happy today. They were all sitting in the living room, Roxanne and Shadow are sitting on new bean bag chairs watching Emily play. Well, Roxanne was anyway, Shadow was waiting for Arnold to get here, he was anxious to meet him. Shadow poked the red bean bag chair he was sitting on. Roxanne was sitting on a black one. Marjarie was fidgeting, she kept looking in her compactor mirror to see if she looked okay. Then they all heard a soft knock at the door. Marjarie jumped up and skipped to the door, she look through the peep hole and she grinned. She opened the door and a tall, skinny man with brown hair and green eyes was standing there. He had two suitcases with him at his sides. He said in a deep, soft voice, "Hey there." He enveloped her in a hug. They stayed like that for a little bit. Emily hopped up and ran over to him too, "Daddy!" She hugged his waist. Roxanne looked at them, Shadow couldn't help but smile. Shadow turned to her and said softly, "I guess your family is back together." Roxanne smiled slightly on the left side of her mouth, "...yea."

Arnold hugged his girlfriend and his daughter again. Then he turned to Roxanne who was still sitting on the bean bag chair. He smiled at her and held his arms out, "Is that my other daughter?" She got up and hugged him. Shadow thought about what he said, he didn't think Arnold was around when Roxanne was born, he doesn't think. He must really care about Roxanne, well, she was his step daughter. After the hug Arnold looked at Shadow, "So this is Shadow?" Shadow stood up. Arnold smiled and held his hand for Shadow to shake. And he did.

Arnold seemed like a pretty good guy, Shadow wondered if he knew who Roxanne's father was. He doubted it; if Roxanne didn't know, he probably didn't. Shadow tried not to think about it. Marjarie seemed a lot happier now that Arnold was there. By seeing the suitcases, Shadow guessed he was moving in. Or moving back in. God only knows how many times this has happened. He also tried not to think about that too.

But there was one thing Shadow couldn't help but think about: How long did he plan on staying here? He has been here for two and a half months. He should leave, and he will. He decided he was going to leave tonight.

They all sat around the TV watching home movies. From when Roxanne was little, to when Emily was little, even up to of recent years. Emily taking her first steps was one they were currently watching. They have been watching these for a couple hours, and honestly, Shadow was getting really bored. He got up and went to the kitchen. He used his jet shoes to lift himself up to the cabinets and reach a glass. Floating to the sink, he turned on the faucet and filled the glass halfway.

"Umm, Shadow?" He turned around to see Marjarie standing there, fidgeting with her white dress. "Yea, what's wrong?" She looked behind her then sat down at the table, "Please, sit, I need to talk to you." Shadow sat down, he was a little worried. She folded her hands, "What do you think of everyone here?" Shadow answered quick and honestly, "Well, Roxanne is my best friends, she means everything to me—" a surge went through his stomach and back, Sonic said that too, he thought about Sonic for a second, then brushed it off. "—and Emily, I would protect her if anything ever happened…And you. This is hard to say because I am unsure…" Marjarie mouth opened slightly as if to say something, then she shut it. "… I mean, I never had a mother before, but…" He looked at his clear glass. "…you are like one to me." This wasn't the response she expected by what he first said, she smiled and stood up, "That's all I need to know. Will you come with me, please?" Shadow put his glass down and stood up. He had no idea what was going on. She walked through the living room past everyone and up the stairs. Shadow followed. The smell of the paint started to fade. She stopped, "Oh, can you get your bean bag chair?" He turned around, went downstairs and picked up his chair. Roxanne gave him a look of question, "What's up?" He shrugged his shoulders. She furrowed her brow slightly, she got up and was right behind Shadow. Her mother was standing in the hallway still. "Mom, what wrong?" Marjarie couldn't help but have a big smile on her face. She pointed her right thumb at the door to the 'messed up' bedroom. Roxanne scratched her head, "What? Is it stuck again?" Marjarie put her hand around the doorknob, "No, I fixed it." She opened the door. Shadow dropped his bean bag chair and his eyes widened.

The room was red, the same color as the kitchen. Directly across from the door was a bed. It was an old fashioned steel frame bed but that didn't matter to him. The bed had a red blanket on it was a white sheet and two white pillows. The bureau looked old too, it was made from dark wood. There also was a TV stand with a small TV on it, like Roxanne's TV. Roxanne didn't believe it either. Although it didn't seem to affect her as much as Shadow, she actually kind of expected it now that she thought about it; her mother always had a hospitable nature. Also, in the window next to the bureau, was a new air-conditioner. Shadow's eyes felt warm, he rubbed it and looked at his glove, and there was a small wet spot on his index finger tip. He took a deep breath, _'Am-am I crying?_' The last time he cried was when Maria died. But this was a good feeling. He didn't understand it…

He turned around and hugged Marjarie, almost knocking her down. He buried his face into her stomach and cried. _'So that's why she wanted to know my favorite color.' _ She put her hand on his head and smiled, _'I always wanted a son…'_ The phone began to ring, Emily yelled up the stairs, "Anney! Its Sonic!" Roxanne hopped down the stairs to talk to her friend. Shadow stomach did another flip.

After everyone was in bed by three in the morning, but Shadow couldn't sleep. He was too excited and happy. He had his own room, not to mention a place to permanently live. But his _own_ room! He always appreciated the little things, but this was something big. He couldn't wait till tomorrow to call Rouge and tell her.

He had to go and visit her sometime, he hadn't seen her in a couple weeks. A couple weeks ago, Shadow visited her apartment alone. Then there was Sonic. Shadow smirked at the thought, _'Faker is going to get so jealous.'_ "Ha ha." All these great thoughts were broken when Shadow heard someone running up the stairs.

Roxanne was sound asleep in her purple bed. She dreamt of Emily and her running through a blue forest. SLAM! "Anney! Wake up! Wake up! NOW!!!" She was being violently shaken, she rubbed her eyes to see her mother fully clothed with shoes on. "Get up, get dressed, pack your things, we have to leave!" Roxanne started to panic, "Mom, what's going on?!" "I'll tell you when we get in the car. What the hell are you waiting for? Quit staring at me?! PACK!!!"

Arnold opened Shadow's door, but not as harsh as Marjarie opened Roxanne's door. "Shadow, wake—oh, you are already awake. Okay, listen; we got to—" "I know, I heard Marjarie in the other room," Shadow said as he put his black trench coat on. He didn't have anything other than that, so he was ready to go. Shadow saw Roxanne running down the steps (almost falling) with four over-stuffed book bags with her. Shadow went into Emily's blue and purple room to see her half sleep, rubbing her eyes, and getting dressed while Arnold was filling up her big pink book bag with clothes and a couple stuffed animals. "Daddy, yawn can I play Kirby?" He sighed, "When we get home." "'kay."

Shadow grinded down the steps on the railing and hopped off and landed right in the kitchen. Marjarie was in there and when he landed she gasped and dropped a plate. Shadow saw and ran over to the broken dishes and started to pick them up quickly, "I'm sorry, I didn't—" "...thats okay." "Marjarie, what's going on?" He went to throw away the broken dish. "I'll explain in the car." She seemed very stressed, Shadow didn't want to push it. Marjarie was putting canned food and the can opener in the black messenger bag she usually brought to work every day. Then putting cookies in plastics baggies and sodas and bottled waters and juices in the bag until she could barely zip it. She was mumbling to herself, "…okay there's now five of us, we should all fit in the car. Now with the food……money along the way….but…" Arnold ran into the room, "Anney and Em are in the car, the bags are too, are you ready?" Marjarie turned around and slumped the bag over her shoulder, face red and stained with tears. Arnold went over to her and embraced her in a hug, "Don't cry, you didn't do this…"

Shadow decided to go to the car. He went outside in the pitch black night and opened the door to the burgundy Hyundai and sat in the back. Emily was on the left, Roxanne in the middle, and Shadow on the right. Emily was sleeping against the window. Roxanne was panicking, "Shadow! What did they say? What's going on?" "…I don't know." "It must be bad, they were panicking." "Mmm." Shadow didn't know what to say, but man, was it hot. Roxanne wiped her forehead, they better get in here, I'm gonna die from this heat." Just then Marjarie and Arnold came running out with the black bag and his suitcases, stuffing them in the trunk and getting in the car. Marjarie got in the drivers seat and Arnold got in the passenger seat. Roxanne said, "Mom! What's going on?! Tell us!" Arnold turned on the air-conditioning in the car. "Mom, where are we going?" Marjarie buckled her seat-belt and turned around to look at her eldest daughter, "Away."

Marjarie had no clue how to explain it to them, they were all probably scared, well, except Emily, for she was till sleeping. But they had to know what was going on. She turned on the radio and a man was talking, "…that the end of that. Now on to the weather. Chuck?" A different voice was speaking, "Yes, well, its only going to get hotter, this June Heat Wave is getting higher. Tomorrow afternoon, the temperature will reach a high of 107 degrees—" Roxanne mumbled, "Oh my god. That's hot." Shadow was helpless, if it was someone he didn't care too much about, he would have just threatened them to tell him what was going on, but in this situation, he couldn't, they were his family now. Marjarie groaned and turned off the radio. She spoke but didn't face them, "Okay, I just found out there is a reason why it's been real hot lately." Roxanne elbowed Emily to wake her up. "There is an….evil scientist who wants to take over the world—" Shadow furrowed his brow and frowned, "The doctor." "—and he threatened the president if he doesn't get control of the US, he will get it and take over in a way they can't fight back. That's what the heat is; he is making it really really hot until the president gives into his demands…" Shadow cracked his knuckles, _'Looks like another fight.'_ Roxanne had her hands over her mouth, "W-will he?" Arnold said, "It doesn't sound like it…"

They had been driving for a couple hours, the sun was starting to rise. Roxanne spoke, "Mom, where are we going?" "Away." "Yea, I know away, but to where." Pause. "To the hiding place."

They drove for a couple more hours, Shadow and Roxanne fell asleep an hour ago, Shadow leaning against the window and Roxanne cuddling with Emily. The car stopped and Shadow opened his eyes. They were in the middle of no where. In the middle of a grassy field, _'I really should have stayed awake.'_ He nudged Roxanne and she woke up, who shook Emily awake. No one said a word. They all got out of the car and stood in the field, Emily rubbing her eyes, Roxanne holding her hand. In front of the car was a steel dome-like door on the ground with a black screen on top of it. Roxanne broke the silence, "Where are we? What is this?" She pointed at the door. Her mother didn't answer.

She walked over to the door and kneeled down and put her left hand on the black screen. It started to flash yellow and green, and then stopped. A mechanical voice sounded, "IDENTITY CONFIRMED." The door opened up. Shadow walked closer and looked down. Pitch black. Roxanne peered over the doorway into the ground, "This looks promising." Then lights began to flicker inside and everything inside was lit. Marjarie softly said, "Well, let's go inside." Arnold picked up Emily and went down the ladder inside. The ladder went about 25 feet in the ground. Then Roxanne went inside, followed by Shadow. Marjarie looked around to see if anyone else was there, seeing there was no one she took a few steps down the ladder and pulled the handle on the inside heavy door to close it.

Inside wasn't incredibly large. Just three small rooms: a place where there was bunks, shelves, and a radio. The other was a smaller room that had a cold storage and selves in it with a first aid kit on one of them. And last, was a toilet/shower room. Inside was very cold and everything was made of steel. Roxanne put her hand Marjarie's shoulder, "Mom, how did you come to own this?" Marjarie shivered, "Money, everything comes from money."

Everyone was sitting on their own bunk. Marjarie looked at the ground with a sad expression on her face. She was always sad when the Dr. Robotnik did things like this. But this wasn't all; Roxanne didn't speak for a while. She just kept looking at the palms of her hands, just looking at them, studying them. Shadow was unsure why, although he had an idea. Roxanne furrowed her brow and pursed her lips. She stood up and went to the ladder. Her mother looked up at her, "Anney, what are you doing?" She didn't answer, she climbed the ladder and Arnold spoke, "Anney, come back here." She continued to climb up until she reached the top, she saw the door, with the same black screen on the inside that was on the outside. She reached her right hand and it started to flash green and yellow lights for a while, longer then it did when scanning Marjarie's hand, then it glowed red, "IDENTITY UNCONFIRMED." Marjarie stood up and raised her voice, "Anney! Get back here! You are _not_ leaving!" Roxanne put her left hand on the screen, once again, it flashed green and yellow, and once again, turned red, "IDENTITY UNCONFIRMED." Marjarie quickly stomped over to the ladder, "Roxanne! Get your ass down here _right now!"_ Roxanne sighed, she reluctantly climbed down the ladder. Marjarie stood in front of her daughter, Roxanne an inch taller than her, both giving each other the same exact glare.

Roxanne sat down on Shadow's bunk next to him. He looked sorrowful at her, he knew she tried to open the hatch, if she did, he would speed out and try to stop Dr. Robotnik. But if her hand couldn't do it, his definitely couldn't. And he doubted Marjarie would open it. But it wouldn't hurt just to ask. Shadow spoke, "Marjarie?" She looked up sorrowfully at him. He continued, "I helped people before, I defeated those black aliens, I defeated a monster on the ARK, I can do it. If you just let me out, I—" "No, I will not lose anyone because of this." Shadow was getting annoyed, "You clearly don't understand; I have powers, I can stop it--!" "I said 'no.'" She sighed, "This isn't some alien. Or some robots. Or a monster. He somehow manipulated the forces of earth to make the temperature rise. You can't stop it with brute force—" Shadow shouted, "BUT I CAN DO IT!" Marjarie furrowed her brow, "This is a climate controlled hideaway we are in right now. It will make the air cooler or warmer depending on how it is outside…" Shadow was so angry, _'She's treating me like a fucking child! I can do it, I know it!_'

Roxanne was deep in thought. She bit her thumb nail and spit out the bitten off part. She looked at her mother and spoke, "Mom, I'm hungry. Can me and Shadow have a couple cookies?" Shadow's ears perked up at the sound of his name, but he didn't look up. He didn't feel like eating , but he was hungry. Marjarie put on a fake smile and nodded three times. Roxanne got up and grabbed Shadow's arm and pulled up out in the other room. He yanked his arm away when they were in there, "How do you know I even want a—" Roxanne stuffed a oreo cookie in his mouth, she ate one quickly too, chewing with her mouth open she reprimanded him quietly, "Shut up, just eat it, hurry up!" He didn't like being bossed around, but chewed and swallowed the cookie. She grabbed his highest quill and moved him around slightly, almost losing his balance, he said, "What the fuck are you doing?" She put his quill against the middle of her upper arm and scratched it, purposely causing it to bleed, she let him go and he rubbed his quill, "What the hell was that about?" She looked at her inch long wound on her arm and squeezed it, causing it to bleed more. Before Shadow could even speak, Roxanne left the room. Shadow quickly followed her. She was clutching her wounded arm and lied, "Mom, I scratched my arm on the corner on the shelf." Marjarie rolled her eyes, "Jesus, Anney." She reached behind her and got the first aid kit. She opened it up, put on rubber gloves, got a bangage out, rubbing alcohol and cotton balls. Roxanne smirked. Her mother put rubbing alcohol on the cotton balls and dabbed the wound, Roxanne winced. Then she put a bandage over it. "Anney, _please_ try not to hurt yourself again." She threw the cotton balls in a waste basket next to her, took of the gloves, making them inside out and throwing those away. Roxanne smirked again, "'kay mom."

The sun went down a few hours ago, it was 12:23am. Everyone went to bed early that night. Well, everyone except Roxanne and Shadow. Shadow and Roxanne's bunks were across from each other, so as they pretended to sleep they began to plot. All the lights were out, the only source of light came from Roxanne's black Samsung cell phone so they could still see each other when they talked.

Shadow whispered, "I am going to try to break the hatch open."

Roxanne whispered back, "You can't."

"I'm a lot stronger than you think."

"I don't doubt your strength, but use common sense!"

"Oh yea? What was your grand-master-minded scheme? Cut yourself again?"

She ignored him, "You think they are all really asleep?"

Shadow took off his gold bracelet and held it over the side of his bed, he dropped it on the cold steel floor. It clinged as it collided with the floor. Emily stirred a little bit in her sleep but no one else seemed to be disturbed. She smiled, "I'll be back."

She grabbed one of her bags and went into the bathroom. In a minute, she came out dressed in black jeans and a black t-shirt with a dark purple star on it. She reached in the front on the bag and put a spiked bracelet on each arm. She walked over to her black sneakers, slipped them on and bit her lip ring.

Shadow frowned, "Where do you think _you're_ going?"

She smirked, "With you."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"You don't understand; it will be dangerous."

"I can handle it."

"You aren't fast."

"So?"

"You can't fly."

"So?"

"Then what could you do?"

She bit her index finger nail and spit it out, "I'm smart."

"Oh yea? If you're so smart, how are we going to get out of here?"

She smirked, "Like this."

Roxanne walked over to her mother's bunk and carefully reached behind it. She carefully picked up the small waste basket and carried it over to her bed. She pulled out the balled inside-out rubber gloves. She carefully turned them out-side in so they would be normal. She took the one that was on her mothers left hand and quietly went over to the ladder, she quickly climbed up it pulling herself up with her right hand. When she reached the top, she cautiously slid the glove on her left hand. She reached her let hand up and put it on the black screen. _'God, I hope this works…'_

It started to flash yellow and green, and it did this for a while. With the only source of light came from a small cell phone, the green and yellow lights made the room flash and glow. Shadow saw the two adults slightly stir in their sleep. The lights kept flashing, and he was starting to think they would wake up.

Roxanne's eyes started to hurt from the bright lights flashing in her face. Suddenly they stopped, "IDENTITY CONFIRMED." She let out a sigh of relief, _'Thank fucking God.'_ She climbed down the ladder, and said quietly, "C'mon Shadow, we can get outta here now." Shadow smirked, "That was a pretty good idea you had, I apologize." She smiled.

They went to the ladder, with Shadow ahead of her, he climbed up three pegs when they heard a small voice; "Anney?" Roxanne wiped around and shined her cell phone's glow on the face of Emily. Roxanne breathes, "Emily! Whadder you—Go back to bed!" Emily sat up in bed, "Are you leaving?" Her plan had failed; Emily woke up, and she was about to wake up her parents.

Shadow jumped off the ladder and stood next to Roxanne, "No Emily, I am leaving. Roxanne is staying here."

Roxanne quickly looked down at her smaller friend, "Uh, no. I am going with you."

"No, you are going to stay here: it's safe."

"I proved you wrong; I got us a way out of here, I want to help!"

Shadow groaned and rubbed his temples, "Fine, but you better not get in the way."

Emily piped up, "I don't want you two to go…" Roxanne kneeled down and hugged her sister, while hugging her, she said, "Em, I promise we'll come back. We'll be fine." Emily whispered, "Are you going to Dr. Rubootnick's?" Roxanne pulled away and held her sister shoulder in her hands, more so she won't leave and wake them up, than so she can look at her sister. Roxanne smiled warmly, "Yep Emmy, we are." She put her index finger to her lips, "But don't tell them, it can be our secret." Emily got a hugged smile on her face and pointed at herself, "Can _I_ go too?" Shadow put his head in his right hand, "Oh god. No, Emily, you can't." Emily pouted, then looked up at them with a small smile, "If you two go, I promise I won't tell them were you two went, I wom't even tell them you left unless they ask." She held up her pinky and Roxanne wrapped her pinky around Emily's making a pinky promise.

Roxanne smiled, her sister was always very loyal to her, at times she was annoying, but whose younger siblings aren't? She also smile at them innocence of her sisters remark, of course they won't ask, if they are not in their bunks, they'll know they left.

Roxanne hugged her sister one last time, and gave her a kiss on the cheek, "I love you, Em." "Love you, too." Roxanne stood up and Shadow climbed up the ladder, with Roxanne following. Emily watched them go up, slightly sad she couldn't go too, but now she knew everything was going to be okay.

Shadow pushed the hatch open and climbed out of the hole. Roxanne did the same. He stood on the grass looking around. Grass. And trees. And dark. Lots and lots of dark. That was all he saw. Roxanne stood up and looked around. She was actually very excited. She knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and she knew she must take it. Hey, if Sonic can do it, she can do it! Right?

Shadow clicked his heels and activated his jet shoes. Then he just remembered something; she can't run as fast as him, _'God, this is really going to slow us down.'_ He turned around, she was biting her pinky nails, after she spit it out, she spoke, "We need to get Sonic." Shadow accidentally deactivated his jet shoes and he stumbled, "Wha—Why?!" "Because, he's a hero, and just as fast as you, we can use his help." "I don't _need_ help." She furrowed her brow, "There's safety in numbers." Shadow hated working with Sonic, he always tried to out-do everyone. But he knew deep down she was right. "Fine, we'll go back and get him. Come here." She did. "Sit down." She raised her right eyebrow, but did as he said. He picked her up bridal style, he clicked his heels, and began to run.

It was 7:10am, Marjarie woke up. She yawned and stretched. She looked over at Arnold, than Emily sleeping, than at the two empty bunks. "Wha--? No!" She got up and stumbled to the area with the food, they weren't in there. She yelled, "Son of a bitch! I fucking knew it!" She shook Arnold awake, "Arn, wake up! Wake up! Anney and Shadow are gone!" Arnold woke up and his green eyes widened in horror, "Oh my god. Marge, call the police!" Emily woke up from all the yelling her mother did, "Mommy, I—" Marjarie shook her daughter, "Did you see them? Do you know where they went?" Emily paused then shook her head frantically. Marjarie's stomach did a back flip_, 'Oh my god, Jesus, they better not go where I think they are going. Please god, don't let them…'_ She picked up her silver RAZR phone and dialed 911. A woman's voice was on the other end.

"Hello, 911, what's your emergency?"

"Please! My daughter, she's gone, she's not here!"

"Ma'am, did you check every room in your house."

"I am not in my house, I am somewhere else…"

"Ma'am, where are you?"

She paused, "Please, my daughter…"

The woman sighed, "What does she look like?"

"She is 5'6, normal weight, she has black hair with green in front of her face, mid back. She has a lip ring in the middle of her lip, she has light blue eyes….She might be with a black hedgehog."

"Ma'am, what is her name?"

"Roxanne Marie Addley." 

"Okay, if we find her, we will hold her in the station, we will call you back from the number you called from, where are you calling from?"

"My cell."

"Okay, we'll all you back, but you _have_ to come down here. What's your home address?"

"1615 Corredero Ave."

"Ma'am, we'll do our best to find her."

"…thank you."

Click.

Emily shouted/squeeked, "MOMMY! You shouldn't have done that! They are doing good! They are doing good!" Arnold grabbed Emily's arms, "What? You know where they went don't you? DON'T YOU?!" Emily arrogantly said, "Yes, I do! But I pinky-promised not to tell!"

As Shadow ran through the forest carrying Roxanne on their way to Sonic's little did they know, there were cop's all over the city looking for them.


	5. Finding the Team

Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Five –Finding the Team

Roxanne was actually kind of surprised Shadow could lift her, considering their height difference, she was 5'6 and he was only 3'3. She figured she weighed more than he did. But then again, he was a anthropomorphic creature and they were just as strong as humans, and also stronger in other ways.

Shadow carried Roxanne whilst running and the cool wind hit her face. The wind caused her eyes to sting and she constantly had to squeeze them shut or put her face into Shadow. Also, she was terrified what would happen if he dropped her. She let out a small gasp when he had to hoist her up again for the fourth time. She could tell he was getting tired from carrying her. She looked up at him, "Shad, do you wanna rest or somethin'?" Not looking at her, but looking straight ahead, he said, "Do you think I am weak?" "No, I am just saying', I don't want ya to drop me, 'cause that would suck pretty bad for me." He had to admit, she was getting heavier and heavier by the minute, and after a couple hours of running and carrying her, not to mention her _constantly_ shifting her weight, he decided he wanted to rest. He slowed from a run to a jog, and then stopped. He put her down. She looked up and saw they were now on the edge of the forest near a river. _'How the hell can he see where he's going when he runs, cause I sure as hell couldn't.'_

It was still late at night, its was almost 3:00am. Shadow sat down on the ground Indian style, and Roxanne did the same. She looked at the ground to her left and pulled up a couple blades of grass. Shadow looked at the shimmering dark water, "What do you think Marjarie will do when she wakes?" She shrugged her shoulders, then uncrossed her legs and laid down, "Prolly have a shit-fit." She looked up at the stars, "I've never seen so many stars, I guess that's what happens when you live in Westopolis, heh…" "It happen when you live in _any_ city." She looked over at the black and red hedgehog, "You don't think anything will happen to us, do you?" He said through a yawn, "What do you mean?" "I mean, you never got yourself almost killed, did you?" "Of course I did, but I always won, I _am_ the ultimate lifeform." She rolled her eyes and smirked, "You are _so_ conceited." He frowned, "I am _not_ conceited, I just know the truth." "Conceited." They didn't say anything for a while. Shadow started to get really thirsty, and got up and walked over to the river. He took off his shoes and his white ankle socks and walked into the water. He looked back at Roxanne and noticed she was still looking up at the stars. He bent down and cupped his red hands to make a bowl and filled his hands with water and drank. He didn't like the taste of the river water, it tasted like dirt. _'Sink water is better.'_ He cool water on his feet felt soothing. Realizing it was still very hot outside, he cupped water in his hands again and splashed his face. He walked out of the river, picked up his shoes and socks, and walked back over to Roxanne and sat down next to her.

He thought about what Dr. Robotnik was doing. He had to figure out how he was manipulating the weather. He doubted he would fail, (_'I mean, I am the ultimate life form.') _but he thought about Roxanne; what would happen to her? She wasn't like Shadow and his….allies. She couldn't fly, she couldn't run any faster than your average person, she also doesn't have any special attacks to get her out of danger. _'She better not get in the way.'_ He looked at her and she was sleeping. He frowned and spoke aloud to himself, "I didn't want to stop. We really should keep going." He yawned and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, he looked at the time, 3:10am. He laid down and looked at the stars. He thought about Maria again. Not how he usually did, he was usually filled with sorrow and regret for what happened. But now he hoped she was doing okay and watching him from wherever she is. _'At least she isn't suffering anymore…"_

Shadow watched helplessly as Maria lay on her bed coughing and throwing up. He held her hand and patted and rubbed her back as every last bit of vomit was expelled from her. She hated vomiting, she always cried, it hurt her chest. She had eaten something she was allergic to; strawberries. She loved them though. But usually when someone ate something they were allergic to, they broke out into hives or just threw it up and that would be the end. But no, not for Maria, it made her have every symptom of the stomach flu now. Since she has a rare genetic disorder disease called NIDS, it weakened her immune system drastically. She grabbed a tissue and rubbed her mouth and threw it in the trashcan next to the bucket she continually vomited in.

Maria was taken the hospital wing of the ARK. She was on so much medication now. She was hooked up to monitors and IVs. Shadow would come and visit her everyday, but was only allowed once a day. Eventually she got better. They eventually learned how to get rid of the sickness she has, but never NIDS. But all the sicknesses and medication would greatly shorten Maria's life. Not to mention her immune system was almost non-existent. That's why she was there; her mother and father thought it was best she was taken to the ARK with her grandfather. She got better after time, but they still couldn't figure out how to cure the disease. Gerald found it funny how they could create a creature that is immortal, but they cannot cure a disease, he often wondered if it was at all possible…

Back in the present, Shadow looked up at the sky with the sun shining right over him into his face. He crumpled his face and squeezed his eyes shut. _'Shit, I must have fell asleep.'_ He picked up the cell phone still in his hand and looked at the time; 9:40am. _'Oh fuck.'_ He leaned over and shook Roxanne awake. "Whudyoo wan'?" "We have to get going, its almost 10."

Shadow was carrying Roxanne again and ran. They were out of the forest and now where running through a city. Roxanne decided to start up a conversation, "You know what, Shad?" He grunted to let her know he was listening. "I'm jealous of you." He glanced down at her for a millisecond then looked forward again, "What? Why?" "Because you have a tail." His face expressed confusing and surprise, he stumbled a little when she said that, which caused her to hold on to him tighter, and then he got his balance back. She grinned, "I always wanted one. I think its cute how when the people who have them are happy, they wag them and stuff. And when there mad, it sticks pin straight out." He laughed, "You are one strange person." She randomly changed the conversation again, "Ya know, after I moved from Florida to California, for the past 10 years, I've never been to the Grand Canyon." Shadow grunted, what was he supposed to say? He just ran.

At about 11am, they made it to Westopolis. Shadow carrying his friend was running through the suburbs of the city. Roxanne looked up to her left and saw a cop car zoom past them, "That's the fourth one I saw in the past minute." Shadow didn't really notice nor he cared, they weren't bothering him, so he couldn't care less.

They rounded a corner and just as they did, Shadow skidded to a stop, almost dropping Roxanne and falling down himself. There were four cop cars blocking the street and pavements with six cops pointing their guns at him. A chubby cop said, "You there, black hedgehog, put your hands up!" Shadow smirked, put Roxanne down, and put up his hands, he had been through this sort of situation so much, especially when the black aliens attacked, so he knew what he was doing. Roxanne looked at Shadow, scared stiff. She never expected to see so many guns pointed in her direction at once. The chubby cop said to Roxanne, "Girl, what is your name?" Roxanne didn't want to tell them, because she didn't know what they wanted, so she lied, "Patricia Adams." The chubby cop lowered his gun and went over to taller, slimmer cop and started whispering to him.

Shadow took the opportunity. He put his arms down, and moved his right arm in a slicing motion, "Chaos Spear!" Six small bolts of yellow came from his hand and hit each gun and made them fall to the ground. Leaving to cops defenseless, he used to homing attack on each one, one after the other. All the cops, knocked unconscious, lay on the ground. Roxanne looked at the cops who were about 25 feet away from her, she was amazed by Shadow's attacking. She saw him picking up the guns and going through their pockets. Pulling some stuff out and throwing it aside, and pulling some stuff out and holding it in his hand. Roxanne crumpled her face in confusion and walked over to him. Shadow noticed she was next, he stood up and tossed a gun at her, she barely caught it and then he handed her a couple cartridges. He handed her another one, with more cartridges, "Put those in your pocket." He picked up a gun and started to walk away. She looked down at the two guns she held in her hands, and asked stupidly, "Uhh, what do I do with this?" He stopped and turned around, "Figure it out." She unbuckled the gun hoister from around the one cops hips. She put it around her's and ran to catch up from him.

They weren't too far from Sonic's house. A couple blocks away, Roxanne could see the cute yellow house. And she could also see her house next to his. She was kind of surprised she didn't see cop cars in front of her house.

They walked down the street and her stomach flipped, what would Sonic say when they told him what was happening? Would he make her stay? She didn't know what was going to happen. Shadow, on the other hand, knew _exactly _what was going to happen: Sonic would jump at the idea, and think of it as 'fun.'

Sonic was in bedroom. It had white walls and was very messy. Dozens and dozens of CD's all over the room, out of their cases. He was sitting on his bed (next to him, his dark green blanket in a ball), a red and white electric guitar in his hands, he was absentmindedly playing it. He was playing a song he was listening to; "Stolen" by Dashboard Confessional. He stopped playing and furrowed his brow, "Damn, I'll never get that right…" He started playing again, but this time a little slower. He didn't know why, he liked it better slower. It didn't sound exactly like how its supposed to, but he loved the song. It reminded him of someone…

"SONIC! SHADOW AND ROXANNE ARE HERE!" Sonic slightly startled by Marina's shouting, made him mess up the song completely. He put his guitar on his bed and stood up. He went over to his bureau and put on deodorant. He sped downstairs leaned against the railing. Marina scolded her son, "Sonic, how many times do I have to tell you? No speeding in the house!" Sonic, not really listening to her, said to his friends, "Hey, what's shakin'?" Shadow said, "Can me and Roxanne talk to you in private?" Sonic's stomach flipped and had butterflies in them, _'Oh my god, did he tell her? Oh, I swear to god, if he did…"_

Sonic let out a big sigh of relief when he found out what was going on (not what he expected). The three friends where out in Sonic's kitchen and Shadow and Roxanne just finished telling Sonic what has been going on. Shadow crossed his arms across his chest and closed his eyes, "I didn't want to come for you, but Roxanne insisted." Roxanne kneeled down to Sonic's level, "So, whaddaya think? Will you help us?" Sonic looked into her icy blue eyes that gave him a warm feeling inside. Sonic's ears began to drooped slightly and he smiled, he then caught himself and winked with his thumb in air, "You know it! Eggman need to go down."

Shadow, Sonic, and Roxanne sat in Sonic's living room. Marina was in the room too, she was listening to their conversation. Sonic had his feet on the coffee table with his arms behind his head. Roxanne next to him and Shadow next to her. Shadow sat hunched over and his hands folded, "But the problem is, we don't know where Eggman is right now." Marina without turning to them, dusting picture frames on a shelf on the wall, said, "Why don't you get Tails to help? He has all those gadget and do-hickies and stuff." Sonic jumped up and sped back up to his room. The two watched him go up and he came down as soon as he went up. He held his blue cell phone in his hand dialed numbers on it. He put it to his head. "Hey-hey Tails? Whassup? Listen, can me, Shad, and Roxy come down to your workshop? We gotta talk about something I can't say over the phone…..'kay." Sonic hung up the phone.

Marina went over to hug her only son, "So I guess you are going away for a little bit then." Sonic hugged his mother, "Yep, I'll be back, I promise I won't die." "That's comforting." "Ha." Shadow looked at Sonic and his mother, kind of surprised she supports him risking his life all the time. She said, "At least this time it will be during summer. I don't like you going when you have school." She kissed her son on the cheek, "I'll tell your father you went off again."

Sonic and Shadow carrying Roxanne were speeding to the Mystic Ruins where Tails workshop was located. Sonic constantly looked over at the two, a little jealous Shadow carried her. After eleven minutes, they made it to Tails' workshop. Shadow let Roxanne down and she stood up. Tails' workshop was a two story building that had a power supply made from the motions of water and gears.

Sonic knocked on the door. They heard Tails say from inside, "It's open." They opened the door. Shadow had never seen the workshop before. It had a workbench, tools, scraps of metal, parts of machinery, etc. Tails was tinkering with a small device that looked a lot like an old cell phone, except it had a big screen on it and six buttons. Tails looked up and saw it was Sonic and smiled, "Oh, hi guys!" Shadow had a look of disgust on his face, "Hmph, you should know whose at the door before you let them come in." Tails ears drooped a little and said, "Um, sorry, I was busy." He stands up and puts down the little steel device and the red screw driver. Tails wiped the sweat off of his forehead, "Man, it sure is hot, especially since we are around all this foliage. So what's going on?"

This time, Sonic told the story to Tails. Tails put his thumb and forefinger on his chin and looked down, face crumpled in concentration. Tails looked up, "You know? We are going to need more help. And since we don't know where he is, we are going to need the help of someone who specializes in tracking things down. Someone who can help us search. And I know who would help us the best. And she is probably trying to steal the master emerald right about now, she always is around this time." Tails looked at the clock on the wall.

Rouge was flying over the temple in the Mystic Ruins. She smirked to herself and spoke aloud, "Ha, that echidna won't know what's coming!" She wiped her forehead, "Uh, maybe I should fly a little lower…" She dived into the jungle and quickly flew, dodging the canopies of trees that shielded her from the relentless ray of the sun. It didn't help at all. She flew through a cave, fast the icy section of it, through the exit.

She stopped and looked and in the distance she saw floating island connected by the wooden bridge. She saw a red figure walking, pacing back and forth. She smiled slightly at the sight of him, then she furrowed her brows in anger, _'What? He usually sleeps around this time! Now how am I going to take it?!'_ She flapped her wings and she elevated off the ground, she flew over the gap between the two lands, with the seemingly endless water underneath her. She landed on the edge of the shrine, opposite the red figure. She climbed the stone ruins and looked over the edge of the last landing. She saw the gigantic green emerald that seemed to radiate a green glow. She licked her lips. Victory was her's, it was so close, she could taste it.

That all changed when she was pulled down on to the landing below her. She landed on her behind and rubbed her head. She looked up to see an angry red echidna with dark purple eyes. He had his left hand on his hip and the other pointed at her. "I hope you weren't planning on trying to _take_ the master emerald." Rouge stood up and dusted herself off. She put on a cool face, "Well, maybe I just came by to say 'Hello.'" Knuckles blinked, "I _highly_ doubt that." She pulled the heart on he jumpsuit up a little, causing her breasts to bounce a little. Knuckles looked down slightly and turned a pale shade a pink. She smirked and said, "Well, I should be off…me and the emerald have plans!" She jumped and took flight, only for a second when Knuckles grabbed her left ankle and pulled her back down, "Oh no, I don't think so!" Knuckles tossed her in the opposite direction of the emerald, but she took flight again and flew back up to the emerald.

Tails was flying above the canopy of trees and saw in the distance, past the cave, two people fighting, one definantly Knuckles, and the other, he assumed was Rouge. He flew back down and caught up with Sonic and Shadow carrying Roxanne. To Sonic's left, he said, "Yea, Rouge is there, just like I said she'd be!" Sonic said, "Great, Tails!" He grabbed Tails arm and sped up really fast. Shadow and Roxanne, falling behind, heard Tails go, "Woooooaaaaahhh…!" Shadow furrowed his brow and said to Roxanne, "I told you he would try to show me up." Roxanne rolled her eyes, "He isn't trying to show you up, he just—WOAH!" Shadow, mirroring Sonic, sped up too.

Sonic with Tails, ran across the wooden bridge and up to the two fighting. They were arguing, Knuckles gripping her upper arm and she was trying to push his big hand off of her, they were both shouting at each other, but Knuckles was louder and angrier. Sonic skidded to a halt and caused Tails to have wipe lash. The two immediately stopped fighting and looked at the hedgehog and the two-tailed fox. Sonic was the first to speak, "Hey Knux, lady trouble?" Knuckles loosened his grip and she yanked her arm away from him, crossed her arms over her chest and put her nose in the air.

Rouge heard something speeding across on the other land, she looked to her right and saw a black blur, it turned, and crossed the bridge. It skidded to a halt and she saw Shadow and Roxanne. Shadow put down Roxanne and smirked at Rouge. Rouge smiled and walked over to Shadow, hugged him and gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek. Knuckles left eye twitched at this sight, and then shrugged it off. Knuckles said angrily to Shadow, "You need to make sure she doesn't come here ever again!" Shadow looked taken aback greatly and was furious with the echidna stupid remark, "She can go _anywhere_ she wants! I don't tell her what to do." Rouge looked up and saw Roxanne, her stomach flipped a little and she looked away. Roxanne looked down guiltily at Rouge. She sighed silently, _'I guess this is how it will be. At least since before…"_

Shadow explained to Rouge what was going on, and she merely scoffed, "Heh, I will only do it if there is a reward involved." Roxanne balled her fists in rage, _'Nope, she hasn't changed one bit since we last talked, she only cares for herself!'_ Roxanne spoke to Rouge (for the first time in years), "Your reward is your life, surely_ that_ is important to _you_. Because if you don't, we are all going to die." Rouge crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Roxanne. A couple of the guys looked confused, Shadow just looked. Rouge put on a cool face again and closed her eyes, "Fine, I'll do it. Do you have a _plan_ yet?" Sonic shook his head, "No, we wanted to get everyone we needed first, then think of a plan." Rouge stuck her nose up in the air, "I figured you didn't." Tails looked up at Knuckles who was much taller than he was, "Umm, you know? Now that I think about it, we are prolly going to need you too, Knuckles. Since you are strong and can fight. If we were in a situation where we need brute force, we would need you." Knuckles furrowed his brow and looked down at the two-tailed fox, "What? No, I can't leave the master emerald." Sonic replied, "Get Tikal to watch it. You told me she comes out of the emerald a lot and talks to you. So why not?" Roxanne had never met Tikal, and Shadow had never even heard of her. He guessed she was a spirit who also guarded the emerald. Knuckles knew that Tails was right, and Sonic's idea was probably the best they were going to get on the subject. Knuckles asked almost in an annoyed manner, "Where are you all going to be?" Tails replied, "At my workshop, we will be there until we come up with a plan." Knuckles looked up at the emerald and back at the others, "I'll be there in a little bit. Now, if you don't mind…" They all took the hint, and left, Rouge occasionally throwing glances back at him.

Knuckles walked back up the steps of the shrine to the emerald to summon Tikal, only to see she was already there. It didn't surprise Knuckles, she was always popping up out of no where to spend time with him. Tikal was an ancient spirit who lived a couple thousand years ago. She was an orange echidna about the physical age of 14. She has deep blue eyes and had a uniquely pretty face. She wore ancient Aztec-like clothes from her time, and she had a soft, calming voice. She spoke before Knuckles could, "I heard you mention my name, so I came here…" Knuckles expected her to say more, but when he realized she wouldn't he did, "Tikal, Sonic and his friends came here and asked me to help them fight that Eggman again. But I can't risk bringing the emerald this time, the last couple times, it was chaotic. I know I am the guardian, but can you watch it while I am gone?" Tikal looked blankly and blinked at him, "But…you are the guardian…?" Knuckles knew she was spiritual and believe in fate and destiny. He knew that she knew it was _his_ destiny to guard the emerald, and that would be that. Tikal spoke again, "Just shrink it to a comfortable portable size and bring it with you. I cannot, it is your destiny to watch and no one elses." Knuckles knew she would say that, he didn't want to have to resort to begging, "Tikal, please, it will help the world. All I am asking you to do it make sure no one takes it." Tikal's expression softened and she gave a small pretty smile, "If you think it will benefit the world, then go. I will do my best." The last thing she said didn't give Knuckles much confidence, but what else could he do? He could risk breaking, or even worse; losing the master emerald.

Sonic, Tails, Rouge, Shadow, and Roxanne went back to Tails workshop. Roxanne and Rouge keeping their distance from each other, the walk back was very uncomfortable for the two girls. They stepped inside and all just stood around, Roxanne staying close to Shadow and Sonic, Tails sat down and started to tinker with the little device again, and Rouge just stood off in the slight distance. Normally, she would have stayed with Shadow, but he was with Roxanne, and she didn't want to go near her.

After about 15 minutes of talking in the small building, there was a knock on the door. Sonic went to open it, expecting Knuckles, but instead was something horrifying to him; a pink girl hedgehog in a red and white dress named Amy Rose jumped on him hugging him, "Ahh! Sonic! I'm so glad I got to find you!!" Sonic's ears drooped and his tail went pin straight out, he pushed her off of him and took a few steps back, "Amy, this isn't the right time, you should leave—" "No, silly, I came to help!" Shadow spoke, "How did you even know we were here?" She folded her hands together and spoke so cheerfully, "I called Sonic's house, and his mom answered and told me what's going on and where he was!" Amy had a huge smile on her face. Sonic groaned and said quietly aloud, "Urgg, Moooom!" Roxanne looked at Amy. She didn't know whether she liked the girl or didn't; she always stalked Sonic and she knew he didn't like her, contrary to her protest. Not to mention her sugary sweet attitude that wore on her nerves.

This time there was a bang on the door and Knuckles walked right in without waiting for someone to answer the door. Knuckles looked confused, "Amy is coming with us?" She jumped gleefully and smiled, her green eyes flashing, "Yep! I came to help and beat up the bad guys!" She tried to put on a menacing look and pulled out her yellow and red Piko Piko hammer.

Tails spoke, interrupting, "So are we all going to do this?" Some nodded, some said 'yea', Sonic saying "You know it!" and Amy bobbed gleefully, "Of course! Anything to be near my darling Sonic!" Sonic looked at Roxanne with a look of saying 'Help!', Roxanne, Shadow, and Tails rolled their eyes. Tails finished working on his device and put it down to his right, "Okay, time to formulate a plan."


	6. The Interrogation and Two Girl’s Past

Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Six –The Interrogation and Two Girl's Past

Since Rouge was an undercover spy, she would know best how to track people down. Her job was to go to Eggman's old base in the edge of the Mystic Ruins and find anything that could help them find his new base. Sonic was to go with her in case anything happened and they needed to get out of there fast. Tails was on the second floor on his computer, the others were not sure of what he was doing, but they knew it was to help. Knuckles sat outside to keep an eye out for any type of danger. That left Amy, Shadow, and Roxanne together in the room downstairs. They were all sitting on the floor.

Shadow broke the silence, "Roxanne?" She grunted to let him know she was listening as she looked at her nails. "What's up with you and Rouge?" At the mention of Rouge's name, she snapped her neck to look at him. She played dumb, she wanted to know _exactly_ what he meant, "Huh? Whaddaya mean?" Shadow knew she was trying to trick him, but he played her game. "As soon as she saw you, I could feel the tension. You never mentioned her before, and she never mentioned you. But you two sure seem not to like each other." Roxanne raised her gaze to an unknown area just above Shadow's head, she knew she had to talk. Amy just watched the whole time, not saying a word, she wasn't there when they got Rouge, so she really didn't know what was going on. Roxanne lowered her gaze to her nails, and started to bite her middle finger nail. She spit it out to her right, and Amy made a disgusted face unknown to Roxanne. She met Shadow's eyes and spoke.

"Ya know, Rouge wasn't always the way she is now." Shadow didn't know what she meant, so he waited for her to talk more. But when she didn't, Amy instigated without that cute smile on her face, "What do you mean?" Roxanne looked at Amy and backed against the wall behind her and leaned on it. She crossed her arms over her chest, but her expression didn't harden.

"Me and Rouge used to be really good friends back in the day. I think I was about ten and she was twelve. Me and her had lunch at the same time. She was always made fun of. She is a bat, and bats have big ears, but her's were _really_ big. Not to mention her big feet. She was quiet and didn't say a more three words to anyone. I remember she sat at the table across from me by herself, everyone far away from her. She would open her lunch box and pull out a ham and cheese sandwich with an can of orange soda and a bag of grapes. She brought the same lunch every day. You could see a group of girls at the other end of the table talking about her, pointing and laughing. I always felt really bad. Then people would try to throw paper balls or small food in her ears. They usually missed but when people got it in her ear, she would reach up and pull it out and flatten her ears against her head and so people wouldn't do it no more. Then people would bark at her like a dog, I guess cause it made it look like she had floppy ears. And that was on the good days. Some days people would sit down with her and point at a boy across the lunch room and say dumb shit like 'He likes you' or stuff like that. Or they would take her food and eat it. Or they would hit her and take her slips and bows out of her hair and throw them in the trashcan, then when she would go to get it, they would call her 'trash picker.' Sometimes things got to bad, she would cry and leave the cafeteria and sit out in the hallway or go to the nurses office and eat the rest of her lunch there. I always felt really bad for her. I would just watch and I would wish I could stand up to them, but I was shy back then and I didn't want people to pick on me…

…One day, before she could even sit down at her usual spot, I called her name. When she looked at me, I guess she expected me to tease her, but I waved her over to me. She looked reluctant but walked over, hugging her little red lunchbox. I sat with Sonic, my human friend Kayla, and a panda boy name Zack. Sonic and Zack used to be good friends too, but they just drifted apart after that year, but there was no tension between them like me and Rouge….but that's not the point. I told her to sit down, she slowly sat down, not meeting any of ours eyes. I opened my plastic bag and pulled out my Nacho Doritos, opened the bag and offered Rouge some. She looked at me, then the bag, then reached in and pulled out a big chip. I looked around and I could see people watching her, waiting for someone to tease her. But when no one did, they went back to doing their usual thing. After a couple days, Rouge finally started to open up and didn't seem so scared. Sonic really didn't pay much attention to her, he mainly talked to Zack and me…

…But then one day, someone decided to be really funny. A fat red-headed girl named Darla walked up to my table standing behind Rouge. I still remember the look on her ugly fat, double chinned, freckled face. She was holding a styrofoam cup and dumped it on Rouge's head. Inside the cup was milk and root beer, with pieces of pizza, hamburger, and chips in it. Rouge cried and flew out of the lunch room. That was it for me, I was fuckin' tired of people fuckin' with her, so I did what I thought was right; I jumped across the table and tackled Darla to the ground." Roxanne laughed a little, "I beat the shit outta her. I knocked out one of her front teeth, gave her a black eye, and pulled some of her hair out. Not a lot, just a chuck. Her nappy, curly red hair, it felt like wires. The staff in the lunch room ran over and pulled us off each other, all I got was a swollen lip and a bloody nose. But _I_ fucked her up good. About 15 minutes later, Rouge was cleaned up a little, still crying a little. She had no idea what happened after she left. The three of us were brought to the principal's office. Long story short, I was suspended for three days for fighting, and Darla was suspended for four. Not like that's really a punishment, we just got a few days off. The next day, after school, Rouge came to my house, Sonic told her were it was, thanked me and hugged me. And told me a ton of mushy crap about being the nicest person she knows…

…Well, I guess I didn't mean _that_ much to her because two years later, things changed. She was in 8th grade and I was in 7th. When she turned 14, she started to get her curves and her good looks. Not to mention she discovered make-up. I invited her to my sister's birthday party. I told her it was going to be kinda baby-ish since she was only two. Rouge told me she might be a little late, but she will be there. I could tell by her voice something was up. Every time I wanted to hang with Rouge, she did this. She would say this, but never show. I wanted to see her, since she was my friend, so I made my mom drive me to her apartment. I knocked on the door and someone let me in. I didn't know who it was, but there was loud music playing and lots and lots of kids I didn't know. They were all teenagers and they looked at me like I was a little kid. I asked someone were Rouge was and they pointed to her bedroom. I opened to door to her room, and saw inside there she was there having sex with someone under the covers. I was so mad. She told me I was her best friend for the longest time, and she couldn't even come to see my little sister and spend time with me?! I slammed the door shut, and two heads poked out of the covers, Rouge and some gray wolf guy who looked at least three years older then her. I couldn't believe it! First of all, she was too young, she shouldn't be doing that shit. Second, she lied to me to hang with her 'cooler' friends. She screamed at me and told me to leave and she never wanted to see me again. She said I was ruining her life and I am not mature enough to hang with her. I ran out of the apartment and ran home. I cried and cried. I remember calling Sonic and he came right over and tried to make me feel better. I asked him if he would ever do that to me. He looked at me like a slapped him and said he never would do that to me…"

Shadow and Amy just stared at Roxanne, taking in all the information. Amy looked like she wanted to cry. Shadow couldn't believe it; Not Rouge, she wouldn't do that, she was always a good friend to him. Amy walked on her knees over to Roxanne and hugged her. This made Roxanne smile, _'When she is all over Sonic and she acts like a normal person. She isn't that bad to be around.'_ Shadow just sat there, deep in thought. He couldn't believe Rouge did that. He just couldn't. Roxanne looked at Shadow and could tell what he was thinking, she knew how they were good friends. But she knew he had to know the truth anyway. Who knows when Rouge would turn on them or sell them out?

Amy backed off of Roxanne and sat back next to Shadow. Roxanne didn't lean against the wall anymore. She widened her eyes, "Oh, please don't tell anyone I told you this! Especially Rouge. She'll just start her shit." Shadow stood up and walked over to the window and looked out of it, he saw Knuckles standing out there with his arms crossed. Roxanne knew he was taking this hard, "Shad, whadder you--?" "She couldn't have done that! That isn't like her, Rouge is respectable," Shadow interrupted. Roxanne felt like it was 100 degrees in the workshop. She felt a cross between confusion and betrayal, "Wait, so you don't believe me?" Shadow just looked out the window. Roxanne got the clue, she stood up and stomped over to the door, slammed it open and stomped out.

As soon as the door slammed open and bounce back against the wall causing a loud bang, Knuckles turned his head to looked at her, arms still crossed. She walked off the stone 'porch' and across the ground, down the ancient stone steps.

Knuckles may not be that bright, but he knew something was wrong. He opened the door to the workshop and poked his head in, "Where the hell is _she_ going?" Amy had her hands on her hips, wearing a very angry face, "Shadow was being stupid and said something to hurt Roxanne's feelings!" Amy then shoved past Knuckles and ran out of the workshop to get Roxanne.

Sonic and Rouge made it to the abandoned Eggman base. They saw the long enclosed bridge. Since it was deactivated, there was no way of opening it. Rouge flew on top of it, and Sonic jumped on it. It was still stable enough to hold them.

Seeing Roxanne earlier that day (having not seen her in a few years), and being alone with Sonic now made Rouge feel terrible. But she keep on her cool face. _'What are they thinking? Bringing her with us! What the hell can she do to help? Nothing! Besides, I don't really want to see her after what happened.'_ They made there was to the base in silence.

Sonic could tell she was deep in thought, and thought it best to keep it that way. He knew what she was thinking, he knew it was awkward from what happened and now. He didn't talk to Rouge that much back when they were kids, but he could tell how it hurt Roxanne, and (though Rouge would never admit it) how much it is hurting her now.

'_I mean, I was right, she was wrong! She had no business of stalking me at my house. If I said I couldn't go to her sister's stupid party, then I couldn't. Maybe I had other plans, did she even think of that? I mean, she was the wrong one here, she was the bad friend…………right?'_

The bridge was longer then Sonic had remembered, he hadn't been here in a few months since the whole deal with Chaos. Sonic looked down at Rouge, and saw she still was thinking. He doesn't really talk to her, but maybe he can help the situation out a little bit. At least make the two girls civil to each other.

"Hey Rouge, what's up?"

"Now that we are walking across the bridge, how are we going to get in?"

"I'll break our way in. That's not what's bothering you."

Rouge stayed silent, not meeting his eyes.

"It's Roxanne, isn't it?"

"What-? No. Why would that bother me?"

Sonic tensed up slightly, "Because of what you did to her."

"Hey, she was wrong. Okay?"

"How was she? From what she told me years ago, _you _betrayed_ her!"_

Rouge stayed silent for a little. She walked slightly ahead of Sonic, she didn't want to engage in conversation again. He ran past her, curled into a spiky ball and made a big hole in the tower. He poked his head out and said with an edge to his voice, "Well, c'mon!" _'I don't care. Honestly, I don't. I was wronged and they know it.'_ Rouge said to herself in her head, in denial. He climbed into the hole and floated down the elevator shaft in the tower.

Roxanne was starting to go down the second stairway to make her way to the train station, trying hard to hold tears in her eyes. _'Of all things to call me a liar about, he had to choose this! This hurts me, she was my friend, and she lied to me. Now I am the liar. Fuck him, I don't care. I am going to go to the police and let them take me to my family.'_ "Wait! WAAAIIIT!" Roxanne could hear the pink hedgehog's voice in the distance. She was pretty sure Amy believed her, so she turned around, not rubbing her eyes so her make-up won't smudge. Amy stopped in front of Roxanne, panting, catching her breath.

Back with Shadow and Knuckles, Shadow saw out the window the second stairway, but could see Roxanne or Amy. He was worried and immediately regretted what he said. Knuckles may not be bright, but he knows when someone was wrong, Knuckles slightly raised his voice, "What the hell is wrong with you, Shadow? What did you say to her?" Shadow put on a menacing face, "Don't you _dare_ raise your voice at me again." Knuckles brushed it off as if he didn't hear him, "Look, with what's going on with Eggman, we don't need anymore conflict! What did you say to her?" Knuckles hated seeing girls upset or angry…unless it was Rouge, he liked seeing her angry. Shadow's ears drooped a little, he didn't feel like arguing, so he told him the basics, "Okay, basically, she told me and Amy about something from her past, and I didn't believe her. This person she spoke of is my friend and I can't see them doing what she said they did." Knuckles looked dumbfounded at Shadow, "…that's it?" Shadow just looked at him. Knuckles spoke again, "If you put our plan in jeopardy, I swear I'll--!" "You'll do what? You won't do shit! Unless it has something to do with that fucking emerald!" "You leave the master emerald out of this!" They continued to fight for a while.

Amy and Roxanne were sitting on the stone steps near the bottom of the stairway.

"Listen, Roxanne, I don't think Shadow meant what he said."

"Oh, I think he meant _exactly_ what he said."

"But Roxanne, you don't understand, they are real good friends, it must just be hard to swallow."

"But, after you left, you should have seen the look on his face, he looked really sad… Maybe if you went back and said--"

Roxanne couldn't believe it! She stood up above, Amy facing her, "Why does everyone care about how he feels! No one friggin' care how _I_ felt! I was called a liar and _you_ want me to go back there and basically apologize to _him?! _ No! I'm fucking done with this, and most of all, I'm done with him, he can believe what he wants, but when I tell him something he practically pulled out of me, and he couldn't take it, _I_ am wrong?!" Roxanne stomped off the lagoon and climbed down the uneven stone landing.

Sonic and Rouge were walking around, feeling around, seeing as, all the electricity was out, they couldn't see a thing. Suddenly, Sonic had an idea; "Ancient Light!" A ball of small white light appeared in Sonic's hands, and then it grew to the size of a soft ball. Rouge looked over at Sonic and she wore a smirk.

They looked around at their surroundings. Surprisingly, it didn't look as bad inside as they thought. They pictured there to be trash everywhere, broken robots, and whatnot. All that was out of place was some thick wires that hung from the ceiling, and dust everywhere.

It was a very long straight tunnel. Sonic smirked at Rouge, "Ya better start flyin' 'cause Imma start runnin'!" He dashed forward and the light near Rouge disappeared. She flapped her wing and floated off the ground, she flew toward Sonic the light starting to fill the area around her again. They sped like this for a while until ahead, Sonic saw a dead end with a big drop. He skidded to a stop and Rouge slowed down, but floated over the drop. She looked down about 60-70 feet down was another elevator shaft and an elevator with was looked like long legs holding onto the elevator shaft. This part was lit up and to Rouge, was suspicious. Rouge held up her hand, as if telling Sonic to stay there. Sonic reluctantly obeyed, he didn't like waiting or staying in one place.

She gracefully flew over to the elevator and saw it was, obviously out of commission. She looked down the side of the elevator shaft and saw black. Lots and lots of black. Rouge stood on top of the elevator, and put her hands on her hips. She looked up and as soon as she did that, she was pulled up at lightning fast speed upward.

Sonic reached his hand out slightly as if that would help at all. He gasped, "Rouge!" He made a fist with his outreached, furrowed his brow and frowned showing teeth. He jumped down into a spin dash. He looked up and saw another tentacle reaching down to grab him, but he was too quick for it, he dashed away. He looked at it arm and jumped on his, then he jumped against the wall. He did this until he made it all the way to the top.

Roxanne was sitting with her feet in the water of the lagoon. Her black and white Adidas lay next to her with her light purple socks with red hearts on them. After she left Amy, she decided not to cry. She acted like she didn't care, but she obviously did. She just didn't understand why he wouldn't believe her. She never lied to him before…_ 'Wait, yea I did. But it was about where I was going, and I was with Mom to get him a beanbag chair…it was the thought that counts.'_ She laughed a little. _'That kid sure likes red.'_

Roxanne kept getting the eerie feeling that she wasn't alone. She was right. She turned around and saw Shadow standing about five feet behind her. How long he was behind her, she didn't know, she had that not-alone feeling for a few minutes. She looked at him. Not glaring, not with an expression of disgust or sadness or any expression at all. She just looked at him. Then back to the clear water.

This bothered Shadow, he had no idea what she was thinking. Usually she wore her emotions on her sleeve, but not in this case. Or did she? Was she not mad at him anymore? No, she had to have been; she didn't say a word to him or flash him a pretty smile. But she didn't even glare at him. But her eyes looked vacant and blank.

Shadow didn't like being wet, but he did it to make it look like he is putting an effort into being nice to Roxanne. He took off his jet shoes and his white socks and put them next to him, in the same fashion as she did. He put his feet in the water and wiggled his red toes around. He looked up at her and saw she still didn't look at him. Shadow honestly didn't know what to say, he wasn't going to say sorry, he felt he had nothing to be sorry for, but he felt it wasn't her wrong doing either. _'Goddammit! I wish she would talk!' _

Roxanne looked at the waterfall and chewed her steel lip stud. She sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to talk first. She had nothing to say to him. Unless he wanted to engage in conversation or argument. She just sat there, the awkwardness growing like a wall between them. Shadow looked up at her again, his ears drooped, _'She isn't going to say anything.'_ He knew now _he_ had to be the one to talk first.

He sighed and took a deep breath, "Look, I don't know what happened back in there but—"

"Don't you try and shit me. You know perfectly well what happened in there."

Shadow was taken aback, he didn't like being interrupted, "Hey, listen, I am trying to talk to you and—"

"You had plenty of time to try and talk to me back in the workshop."

His ears drooped a little bit more.

She spoke again, "Oh, and for the few minutes you were standing behind me."

Shadow's face turned a slight shade of pink. He was surprised she knew he was behind her. He just didn't know how to approach the problem. He looked at his submerged feet, _'I never fought like this with Maria.'_

"Do you _still_ think I was lying?"

"…no, I don't."

She had expected this, it was the only way for them to really stop fighting, for the first time since before he sat down, she looked at him. She wrapped her arms around him and he could feel her smile on the top of his head. He felt a lot better now that it seemed she wasn't mad at him anymore, but didn't feel very good when he was submerged under water.

She had pushed him into the lagoon. He poked his head out of the water, coughing. His tail sticking straight out and his ears pointed straight up. He hated water. But felt a little better again when he saw Roxanne was laughing at him. He looked down and saw her feet still under the water, he smirked and grabbed her small feet and started to drag he under the water. She squirmed and tried to grab the ground so he couldn't pull her in, "No! Don't! Shad, I'm wearing jeans!" She was pulled into the water, her back and her butt was wet, not to mention her butt had mud on it now. But she was only knee deep in water, she stood up and Shadow trudged quickly behind her and pushed her in the water falling deep in the three feet of water. Because of their height difference, she could pull him into too deep of water, knowing he can't swim, so they just splashed each other with water.

Sonic was fighting an Octobot. Its seven mechanical limbs flailing at Sonic and one hold Rouge. Sonic decided to pull and old trick he knew on it. He jumped on the head of the Octobot and its one tentacle pierced right though it. It kept moving, so he did it again, another tentacle pierced it. He kept doing it until all but the tentacle holding Rouge went through it. Sonic jumped it its head and it dropped Rouge, and she flew out of harm's way, she floated surveying the scene, rubbing her stomach. The eighth and last tentacle pierced it, and it fell to the ground.

Rouge floated down next to Sonic as he admired his victory. She rubbed her arm and said, "You know, I could have done that myself." Sonic rolled his eyes, "Your welcome." He started to walk and looked around. _'We must be in Eggman's control room,'_ Rouge thought. Rouge went over to a steel office desk and on top of it was just different designs of extreme gear he designed and was sold earlier that month.

Sonic and Rouge were looking around the room, just trying to find anything, anywhere, that could help them. Rouge was going through the desk, in the middle drawer on the right, and she found a manila folder with a red star shaped stamp in the bottem left corner of it. She pushed the designs of extreme gear off the desk with her arm and put the folder on the desk and opened it. There were three blueprints of a structure that looked unfamiliar to Rouge, and six other blue prints of a different version of designs of a metal logo shaped like Eggman's head. She looked through other white papers in it and found a paper that had printed on it a bunch of random dots and numbers. She looked over the paper and smirked. She looked over to wear Sonic was looking and saw him going through a small waste basket unballing trashed papers, then throwing them aside when he found them useless.

Rouge walked over to Sonic and nudges his leg with the tip of her foot. He looked up at her, "Huh?" he stood up, "What's up?" He looked down at the paper she held in her hand. She playfully smiled at him, "I think we can go back now." He reached for the paper and took it out of her hands. He looked it over with a very confused expression on his face.

"This? This can help us?"

"Do you even know what '_this_'is?"

"No…"

She pointed at the dots, "This is Morse code." She pointed at the numbers, "And these are coordinates."

His ears perked up, "This is Eggman's new base is?"

She smiled slightly, and nodded once.

He smiled a teethy goofy smile, "Then let's get goin'!"

Amy and Knuckles, now alone both sat on the bench in Tails' workshop. Amy tried to engage in conversation with the red echidna, but he just would grunt or murmur. Amy decided to see what he was thinking, "Is anything bothering you?" Knuckles nodded twice, "Yea, it's the master emerald. I hope it will be okay." Amy asked, "Is it by itself?" Knuckles shook his head, "No, Tikal is with it, she said she would watch it to make sure no one takes it or destroyed it." The small ears under Knuckles quills twitched. He stood up in fighters stance, "Someone is coming." Amy stood up and cautiously walked over to the window and saw Sonic speeding up the first stairway with Rouge flying ten feet above him, she clasped her hands together in joy, "Oh! Its my Sonic! He came back! And Rouge is with him." Knuckles walked over to the window and looked out and saw the blue hedgehog and the white bat.

Roxanne and Shadow, completely soaked, the mud all worn off of her because of the water, decided they should head back. Shadow shook like an undeveloped animal would to get the water off. Roxanne twisted excess water out of her hair. They climbed up the earthy landing on their way back.

Sonic opened the door with Rouge behind him and said loudly, "We got it!" Amy ran and hugged Sonic, and the whole good feeling he had now was gone, _'God, why does she have to always hug me?'_ Rouge stepped in and pulled the folded up paper from out of her top, which made Knuckles do a double take. Tails came downstairs and Sonic gave him thumbs up.

Roxanne and Shadow walked in (Still all wet) and saw everyone there. Shadow looked at Rouge and felt a fiery fury inside him for a second, then he focused on Sonic, "What did you find?" Sonic smiled and said, "We found what could possibly be coordinates of his new base!" Rouge unfolded the paper and handed it to Tails. Tails looked it over, over and over again. He finally said, "I will go on my computer and try to figure out where this could be.

Shadow went and sat with Rouge, but couldn't help but feel the anger he felt toward her after what he had been told. Sonic came and walked over to Roxanne and said with a slight laugh, "Why are ya all wet?" She made a motion indicating Shadow, "Me and him caught up later and I threw him in the lagoon over that way. Then just splash water at each other." Sonic's ear twitched, "Ya wanna sit outside? Its hot out, so you'll dry faster." She had an apathetic look, "'kay."


	7. On Our Way

I am so sorry it took me so long to update, a lot of stuff has been going on in my life I had to handle first. Thank you for being patient. Read and Review!

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Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Seven –On Our Way 

Sonic and Roxanne were lying on the ground, outside the workshop. His arms were folded behind his head and her's were folded neatly on her stomach. The warm rays of the sun shone on their faces and the air around them was humid and hot. But it was not the sun that seemed hot, but the air itself just seemed to radiate heat. They stared at the sky in silence for a while. Sonic would, once in a while, look over at Roxanne. She just laid there occasionally raising her hand to her face to twist the silver stud right below her bottom lip, and she straightened out her damp but drying dark shirt.

Sonic decided to talk. He tilted his head slightly to look at his good friend. He pulled his hand from behind his head and poked the side of her head. (Her hair was already dry.) She didn't move at all, just made a grunting noise to let him know she had his attention. Sonic spoke, "Whassup?" "Um, not much, just waiting for my clothes to dry." "Are ya sure you wanna do this?" "Do what?" "Go after Eggman?" "Yea, sure, why?" "Uh, I dunno, I just don't want you to—"

PLOP. "SONIC!! You are so brave for going in that dark, old, dusty, and prolly smelly ol' Eggman base!" "Amy, gettoffa my stomach!" Amy frowned and furrowed her brow, and hopped off of Sonic's stomach. She crept out there so quietly that neither of the two noticed. Then she jumped and landed on poor Sonic's stomach. How she thought this would make him happy, he didn't know, all he knew was she comes along at the wrong time all the time.

He didn't hate her, he didn't dislike her; actually liked her a lot: as a friend. If she wasn't so annoying, she would probably be one of his best friends. He was flattered she liked him as much as she did, but he just wished she wouldn't…show it as much. He just didn't feel she was the right girl for him. Also, their ages didn't help that much; he was 15, she was but 12. She was barely at the peek of adolescence, he was in his midteens. Even if he did like her, he would feel weird going out with someone who hasn't even officially become a teenager yet. Not to mention the fact he is at the age were most teenagers lose their virginity; even if he loved Amy, he could never ask her to do that for him at her age. He thought constantly to himself that when Amy gets older, in a couple years, she is going to be a very attractive girl, physically. He could just tell, she is going to be super curvy, but she is already getting a little 'busty' up top, maybe bigger than your average 12 year old. The problem is she has been overly obsessive about him for four years. But she is just not what Sonic is looking for. She is just not his type, you never know what could happen, but for now, didn't have any feelings for her. He already knows the kind of girls he was attracted to.

Sonic will never remember the crush he used to have on Elise. Was he in love with her? Probably not, teenagers go through numerous loves. But then again, will he ever know? Not that that mattered now, because he knew who he was in love with. And he would never forget that.

Sonic pushed Amy off of him and turned his head in the opposite direction of Roxanne and threw up. Amy clasped her hands over her mouth and gasped, "Oh Sonic! I am sooo sorry! I was just trying to be affectionate…" Roxanne sat up and patted Sonic on his back as he puked, she said, "Amy, why do you go help Tails? Maybe he needs help." Amy perked up and jumped in the air, "For my darling Sonic, I will!"

After Amy skipped into the workshop, ready to bother Tails with the intention of assistance, Sonic calmed down. He coughed p the last bit of puke, "Jesus burp why does she have to do this?" He wiped his mouth with his arm and looked at Roxanne, his face sweaty and red. Roxanne smirked, "She likes you." "Hell, don't remind me." "It must suck to be you." "Ya know, Roxy, you're a bitch." "Ha, well, you're short." "Big things come in small packages." "Small packages is right." "Skank." "Douche." "Lesbian." "Queer." Sonic gave her a sincerely sour look, she knew she struck a cord, but felt guilty about it when she saw the look on his face. "Uh, sorry."

There was a reason why this annoyed him. Roxanne was the only person who knew his secret, he entrusted her with it and knew she wouldn't tell a soul. He was bisexual. He didn't mind her saying anything else pertaining to the fact about homosexuality or bisexuality, but he hated the word 'queer.' He didn't really know why, he just did.

"Yea, uh-huh," Sonic stood up and looked at her blankly, "You look dry now." Roxanne patted her shirt (which was dry) and dreaded to touch her dark jeans (which surprisingly were dry too), "Well, I guess the heat is good for something. She stood up, and cocked her head to the door of the workshop signaling she was going inside and for him to follow. And follow he did.

She pushed the door open and they walked inside only to see an empty room. No one was in there. Sonic spoke, "They must be upstairs." He jumped on the railing of the spiral staircase and grinded up it. Roxanne quickly followed, running and skipping steps as she went. Everyone was crowded around the computer, Knuckles was the first to turn around and see them, "Sonic's here." Tails and Amy turned around with two different expressions of their faces (Tails looking determined and ready to speak. Amy looked at him with that cute smile on her face, completely forgetting she made him throw up). Rouge was typing on the computer. Then a lot of flashing was seen and beeping was heard. After four seconds, this ended and Rouge had a big grin on her face. She spun around in the computer chair and pointed to the computer screen, which had an orange outline of some island.

Tails (brows furrowing) and Rouge (looking confident, hands on her hips) stood up in front of everyone. Tails pointed to the island on the computer screen, "This is where Eggman's base is, exactly 17 miles east of Kauai. Sonic raised his left eyebrow, Shadow did the same, Amy stared blankly, Roxanne blinked, and Knuckles spoke, "Where is that?" Rouge answered, "It is the most northwestern island of Hawaii, east of it is a much smaller island code named 'Mea Huna.' That is were we have to go." She slipped her shiny white hair behind her shoulder with her left hand, apparently proud of herself. Roxanne rolled her eyes. Tails said, "In order for all of us to get there undetected, we have to go by submarine. But we have to expect Eggman has loads of traps in and around the island." Shadow walked to stand next to Roxanne, "Roxanne, I don't think this is a good idea for you to go, you could get hurt." She pulled out one of the guns Shadow made her take from the cops, "I'll be fine." Knuckles eyes went wide, "Holy shit, she has a gun!" Shadow also pulled one out from only God knows were, "So do I, its fine."

Tails spoke up, "Well, I don't have a submarine, nor do I have the time to make one. In order for Eggman to get to Mea Kuna, he had to have had one as well; maybe he has one in that base Sonic and Rouge were just at." Rouge brushed her jumpsuit with her glove hand, "But we would have to all the way to the bottom, in case there is an underwater cavern. But it would do best to split up. Shadow, you give Sonic your wrist contactor, we will split up in two groups; Sonic, Tails, Amy, and _her._ And you, me, and Knuckles." Shadow grabbed Roxanne's arm, "No way is she being let out of my sight; She's coming with us." Rouge gave Shadow a look that spit acid, "_fine,_ but _I'm_ not going to be the baby-sitter." Shadow let go of Roxanne's arm and she curled her fists into ball, "For your information, _Rouge_, I can take care of myself." Rouge crossed her arms over her chest and smirked, "Doubt it. But if you must insist." Shadow didn't know if he could deal with the constant bickering these two girls would most likely cause, he guessed only time would tell.

Sonic was carrying Amy bridal style in his arms (which she was practically swooning, by the way), Shadow, doing the same with Roxanne, Knuckles gliding through the air, Rouge by is side, and Tails also by Knuckles' opposite. They were speeding through the jungle of the mystic ruins, passing the temple, past the creak, than to the bridge.

While inside the base, they encountered none of Eggman's robot, being guided by Sonic's mystic light. Since none of them had the ability to use the mystic light, they never split up, but instead followed Sonic. Amy got a huge smile on her face and perked up, "C'mon guys! This way!" She ran ahead of them, in the dark. Sonic reached out to grabbed nothing, "Amy! WAIT!" The gang went in search of Amy as she disappeared into the darkness until them came across a set of stair. Everyone fell down them, except for Shadow and Roxanne because Shadow jetted up and grabbed Roxanne when he heard the screams of his allies.

Sonic's ears perked up when he heard Amy's voice in the distance, "This way! Over here!" Everyone got up, Shadow and Roxanne walked down the steps, and made their way to Amy's voice. At the sound of flowing water, everyone was careful where they stepped. Sonic was ahead of everyone and bumped into none other than Amy. She cheerfully smiled, "I told you to come down here! Look!" She pointed down and to her left and Sonic put his handed where she pointed and saw the top of a red and gray submarine sitting in the clear water. Sonic stutter, "B-but Ames! How didja know?" Amy put her hands on her hip, "My girlish intuition told me so!"

Tails flew over above the water, opened the hatch of the vessel, and looked inside, "Its dark." Knuckles peered inside too, "No shit." Tails looked at him and gave him a dirty look. "Watch out, guys!" Sonic jumped inside and lit up the small vessel, "Tails, can you turn it on?" Tails jumped inside and went over to the control panel, and pressed a few buttons. A second later, there was a loud humming sound, a vibration, beeps, and the whole submarine lit up. Everyone cheered Tails on as he blushed under his white fur. Everyone climbed inside and Amy cheerfully scream, "Yay! We are on our way!" Shadow groaned, _'This is going to be a long trip._'

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I will try to update soon since my life is in order now! R&R! 


	8. Praying Might Do Some Good

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Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Eight –Praying Might Do Some Good

It has been about a day since their trip from Eggman's base. It is nighttime, everyone is sleeping uncomfortably on the floor except for Roxanne and Shadow. She is sitting next to him with a blanket wrapped around her while he drove the submarine. "Thank God you got the hang of it, I thought when Tails was showing you how to drive this thing, we were all going to die. Heheh." Shadow snorted, "I am not accident prone, I am a quick learner." They were silent for a minute until Shadow spoke, "I still don't think this is a good idea, you coming with us." "Well, there's not much that can be done about that now, I am here, and I will help."

Shadow and Roxanne, keeping quiet, got into deep conversations about random things like; life, Shadow being a part-time spy, adventures he had, food, friendships, but the most dreaded topic in Shadow's mind: Sonic. She spoke of previous relationships she had and how he was jealous of every one. "…just like my last ex, TJ, Sonic always got super jealous when I was with another guy. He prolly thought we weren't going to hang out like we used to, also prolly because he didn't want a guy to hurt me." Shadow knew this to be false, he was jealous for a _different_ reason. She sneezed. Shadow said, "Bleshoo." She smiled, "Shanks." (She said 'shanks' instead of thanks.) She continued with her story and her obliviousness, "That's why TJ broke up with me; he couldn't deal with Sonic always being a jerk to him. It's hard having a guy as your best friend, and then having a boyfriend, the friend will always look out for you even though you can take care of yourself." Shadow had a pang in his stomach.

She chuckled, "Well, one time there was this guy and Sonic told me that I can't go for him." Shadow absentmindedly asked, "Why?" "Because Sonic said I better not because the guy was hot and—" "WHAT?!" Shadow yelled and surprisingly, the only thing that happened was Tails looked up and then rolled over, falling back to sleep. Shadow whispered, "What? What did he say?" Roxanne's eyes were as big as saucers, "Oh fuck! Um, forget it." "No, tell me!" Roxanne bit her lip stud and then her lip, "Uhh, if I tell you a secret, you _cannot_ tell _anyone_, especially _Sonic._" Shadow anticipated how she was going to explain this one. She leaned in closer and before whispering to him, she glanced at her blue friend. Seeing that he was sound asleep, she whispered, "Okay, listen, last year, Sonic was talking to me and told me that he was bi, its not a big deal." Looking at Shadow's smirk, she couldn't help but smirk too, but for a different reason. Shadow looked back to the front window of the sub, "I always knew he was a little funny." Roxanne laughed slightly when she decided to tease him a little bit to amuse herself, "If only you knew, haha." Shadow's left eye twitched, "What do you mean?" She smiled sweetly and deviously, "Nothing." "No, you said that, now tell me?" "You going to still keep this secret, no matter what happens?" "Sure." "Hmm hmm hmm… A certain hedgehog used to have feelings for another certain hedgehog." Shadow's stomach flipped, "Who?" "I think you know." She flashed him a smirk before getting up and walking over to the lavatory. "Wha-Are you Serious?"

Everyone was awake now, Tails was taking over driving the sub and Sonic, Shadow, and Roxanne were sitting on a steel bench that was placed in there. Shadow thought it was going to be really hard to be near Sonic knowing that little secret, but since he knew who was held in Sonic's heart, it didn't bother him anymore. Rouge came over and sat down next to Shadow and started up a conversation, "Jesus, that echidna sure is protective of that emerald, he won't even let me hold it." Roxanne butted in, "Well, its not _yours _anyway." Rouge cast her the red eye, "I wasn't aware I was speaking to you." Tails called Sonic over to speak to take over driving the sub. After Sonic left it was the two girls and Shadow. Shadow stood up in front of them, arms folded across his chest, "Look, I'm not dealing with you two fighting like children, you both are my friends, but you two need to grow up." We walked away to talk Sonic and Tails.

Now the two that were left sitting on the bench was the bat girl and the human girl. Rouge moved closer to Roxanne, "You better get off this bench." Roxanne retorted, "Oh yea? Whadderya gonna do? You can't do shit to me here." "Well, I am not moving." "I was here first." "So?" "Fine, I guess your sitting here too." "I guess I am." "Fine." "_Fine._" Both girls sat there, backs to each other, one leg crossed over the other, and arms folded across their chests. Rouge sniffed the air, then looked at Roxanne. Rouge said, "Is that Marc Jacobs' _Daisy?_" Roxanne looked at Rouge after being asked about her perfume, "Mhmm." Rouge turned away from the human, "Its pretty." Roxanne turned away too, "Thank you." "You're welcome." Silence. Rouge's ears slightly drooped, "How's life?" "Fine." "Good." "Yours?" "Fine." "Good." Silence.

Tails and Sonic talked to Shadow as he drove the vessel. Tails was in front of a computer screen, typing into the computer, "Okay guys, we are about 33.56 miles away from Mea Kuna. I found, on this software, the map of the base, and I found out some things. Apparently, the heat source is coming from a radiator in the very bottom of his base there; it is filled with some kinda super-magma. If it is destroyed, the heat with gradually go back to normal…"

Amy was wondering around the sub and saw a white cabinet. Her curiosity is second to none, so of course she had to see what was inside. When she tried to pull it opened and failed, she jumped on it, yanking. Still unable to open it, she jumped up again and pulled out her Piko Piko Hammer and smashed the door, everyone turned around to look at the load noise to see one of the cabinet's doors crashed down on Amy's head. Sonic sped over to Amy to help her up, "Ames, you okay?" She blushed, "Yea, I'm okay." Sonic looked up at the cabinet and say a silver box. He jumped up and retrieved it. He clicked the locked on it and opened it up. Inside were very cold, misting, white marbles. Sonic picked on up and examined it.

Knuckles kneeled down to look at them, "What are they?" He picked one up and stuck his tongue out as if to see if it would stick to it. Rouge smacked it out of his hand, "Are you a fool? It looks like some form of dry ice, and that wouldn't be good if it stuck to your tongue." Knuckles pulled his tongue back in his mouth and stood up, "Hey, I was just wondering what would happen!" "Well, that's not very smart."

Tails (after putting this sub on auto pilot) flew up the cabinet and saw it was empty. To its left, there was another cabinet. "Knuckles, can you open this?" Knuckles answered, "Why certainly, Tails." With a jump, a grunt, and a punch, the cabinet door was smashed. Everyone peered inside and inside appeared to be three gun-like weapons. They were large, steel, and on top, had a clear tube. Amy saw them, "Ooo, are they water guns?" Rouge picked one up and examined it, then looked at the box of icy marbles. She picked one up and pulled the back of the glass tube off and place it inside. She commanded Knuckles, "Pick that up and throw it in the air." Knuckles crouched down and picked up the cabinet door, and threw it in the air. Rouge aimed the gun at the door and shot at it. It made the strangest noise; it sounded like a strong gust of wind, but sped up. Then it hit the door, dented, cracked, and frozen. Tails smiled, "That's it! This could help us! We could use this to destroy the supermagma." Rouge smiled and grabbed a fistful of the marbles and filled the tube with them. Tails grabbed he two other guns and filled them with marbles.

A computer voice spoke, "Now Entering Mea Kuna. Adjusting temperatures." Tails ran over to the front of the sub, "It says we are 4.2 miles away from the island. It won't be long now, everyone, get ready." Shadow and Roxanne pulled out their handguns. Knuckles cracked his, well, knuckles. Rouge pulled her jumpsuit up a little to prevent form 'falling out.' Amy pulled out her hammer. Sonic just smirked.

Roxanne walked off to far corner of the sub, Shadow watched her cautiously. She folded her hands together (gun still in them) and closed her eyes, "God, please, I need you now more than ever, please. Please protect everyone, and let us accomplish our mission…" Shadow didn't know if he believed in a god, but if there was one, praying might do some good.

Tails spoke out loud to the computer, "Computer: detect Robotnik traps." The computer made a beeping noise then said, "Closest Robotnik trap is approximately 6 feet away." Amy made a scream, Roxanne gasped, and Knuckles said, "What?!" Tails screamed and looked up at the window to see a 10 foot high bomb directly in front of them in the cloudy waters. He pulled some levers and the vessel hastily and sharply turned left, causing everyone to be flung, crashing into the right side of the sub. Knuckles fell on top of Rouge with an "Umph!" She snickered, "Well, isn't this lovely?" Knuckles turned red and quickly was thrown off of her as Tails made the sub to a nose dive as there was another bomb in front of them.

Sonic somehow made his way to Tails while he quickly dodged all the bombs. "Tails! Woah! How far are we from the island!" "About 2 miles! Hold on!" Once again, they were flung to the right side of the sub, without thinking, Sonic grabbed Tails right tail as he was being thrown. "AHHH!!!" Tails screamed as his tail got popped out of its socket. Now it was going to be more difficult to make sure his friends did get blown up because of the foggy, oily, water, and the pain his tail caused. Electric pain shot up through his spine and caused him to gasp and make jerky movements. When Sonic saw what he did, he immediately let go, "Sorry Tails!"

Roxanne clung to Shadow, terrified, but no matter how scared she was, _he_ was twice as scared as she was. He didn't want anything to happen to her, this was exactly what he was afraid was going to happen, he warned her back when they were in Marjarie's hidden shelter. He told her it was going to be dangerous, she meant everything to him, didn't want anything to happen to her. For once in his life, he prayed. Shadow prayed to God, any god that might have been out there, let them get there safely.

It wasn't much longer now, they could see the teeny tiny island in the distance. Tails pointed at it, "Look! Its there! I see it!" Within 10 seconds they were on the edge of the island. Shadow let out a big sigh of relief and Roxanne tight grip on her best friend loosened. Tails turned the power off and said, "Everyone, I want you to listen up, okay?" Everyone stood up and faced the small fox. "Okay, umm, Eggman's going to know that we are here soon, if not now, so everyone, keep on your toes."

Tails tried to fly to open the hatch, but immediately fell to the ground, "Ow!!" Sonic ran over to his young friend and kneeled beside him, "Lil' bud, are ya okay?" Tails yelled at Sonic, for the first time in his life, out of anger, "No, Sonic, what the hell does it look like?" Sonic's ears drooped and helped Tails up, and apologized quietly. Tails stood up, brushed himself off, and his expression softened, "Sonic, I'm sorry. It just hurt." Sonic still didn't cheer up, he hurt his friend, and possibly hindered their mission in doing so.

Rouge flew up and opened the hatch, and everyone climbed up the ladder and out to the island. Rouge, still in flight, put her hands on her hips and looked at the small island, the radius of it could be no more then 30 feet with a small cavern in the center of it. She questioned, "This is where Eggman's base is?" Shadow smirked, "Rouge, as a fellow secret agent, I thought you would know to expect the unexpected. Remember: nothing is what it seems." She retorted, "Well, at least _I_ have had more assignments than you, you've only had one." Shadow furrowed his brow, "And _that_ was one too many." Rouge pinched his cheek, "You're too cute." This made Knuckles slightly jealous for some reason he didn't know. He crossed arms over his chest and walked past Rouge. Tails handed a ice gun to Shadow and Amy, he kept the other one himself.

Sonic walked up to Roxanne, took her hand and lead her away to the edge of the oily water. Letting her hand go, he said, "Rox, I want you to go back on the sub. This is way too dangerous for you." Roxanne look taken aback, and decided to toy with him, sarcastically said, "Why Sonic, you don't think I can take care of myself?" Sonic pleaded, "Rox, I'm serious! I don't want you getting hurt." "But I have a couple guns, I'm not stupid, I'll be fine." This didn't seem to appease him, "But what if something happens to you, I couldn't forgive myself." Roxanne put her one hand on her hip and furrowed her brow, she was starting to get annoyed, "Sonic, no matter what you say, I am going in there." "But--" "Nope, I'm going in there." "What if—" "Nope." Sonic knew he wasn't going to win, she was too stubborn. Defeated, he said, "Fine, but as soon as I tell you to run, you better _run._ And get back to the sub." Roxanne smirked, "I win."


	9. Go

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Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Nine-Go 

Shadow walked over to the cavern and looked inside. Rouge asked, "What do you see?" Answering, he said, "Dark." Sonic walked up to the mouth of the cavern and said, "Well its now or never." He wiped the sweat from his forehead. Walked inside, as soon as he did, lights along the walls lit up. The long hallway was completely empty. Shadow turned around and said, "It looks clear." Everyone peered inside before cautiously walking in. Shadow went in the back of the crowd to walk next to Roxanne, to protect her if anything happened to her. Amy ran up to Sonic and wrapped her arms around his waist, "Oh Sonic! Will you protect me if anything bad happens?" He sighed, "Yea, sure." Poor Sonic walked down the hallway with Amy clinging to him.

After about 20 minutes of nothing happening, this both annoyed and relieved Sonic. He was a very impatient person, he preferred a straight-out fight than all this sneaking around. But also, at the moment, Roxanne was safe, so this eased him slightly. But how long will it be until this relief comes to an end?

Rouge walked up to Knuckles and walked beside him. Not a word was said between the two. Occasionally, they would take glances at each other. Knuckles looked at Rouge and eyed her up and down, well, he _was_ a guy after all. She looked at him and smirked, when his eyes reached her face and saw her expression, he quickly looked away and turned red.

After becoming bored with teasing Knuckles, Rouge fell back to Roxanne and Shadow. She said to her hedgehog friend, "So." He raised an eyebrow, "So _what_?" Rouge crossed her arms behind her head, "Another adventure, huh? We always get tangled up somehow." Shadow didn't know if she was talking about the two of them or her and Knuckles, but made a grunting noise to let her know he was paying attention.

Rouge looked up at her former friend, Roxanne. Roxanne looked down at the bat and simply said, "_What?_" Rouge was taken aback, "Jesus, don't get feisty." Rouge smiled slightly, "Its been years." Roxanne looked at her feet as she walked, "Mhmm." Roxanne honestly didn't like Rouge talking to her, she hurt her, lied to her, and now she is a slut….isn't she? Well, Roxanne thought she sure acted like one. Rouge definitely did _not_ feel guilty about anything she did before. Sure Roxanne was her friend, but she had better friends, friends who looked out for her. Friends who knew what she liked. Friends who stood up for her. Friends who never let her get herself into trouble where she couldn't dig herself out.

It wasn't until now Rouge realized who her true friend was back then. It was the girl standing right by her side. Rouge's ears drooped and she sheepishly looked up at the human. But Rouge was too proud, she couldn't say anything about _that _to she?

Rouge whispered to Shadow, "Hey, can I talk to her." "No." Rouge was taken aback, "Why not?" "Because you are going to fight with her." "No, I won't. I give you my word." Shadow looked at Rouge, one of his best friends, "Fine, I won't be far away." Shadow sped ahead to walk next to Sonic, as he talked down to Amy to get her off of Sonic.

Rouge walked closer to Roxanne, before she could open her mouth, Roxanne spoke, "What do ya want?" "To talk." "Why?" "Because I realized something." "Oh yea? What?" Rouge gulped, '_this isn't going to be easy for me', _"I was wrong." "About what?" Even though Roxanne knew exactly what she was talking about, she just wanted to hear her say it. She had been waiting for this day for years, she was dancing on the inside, _'I love it when I am right.'_ Rouge said, "Look, about that day a long time ago. You were looking out for me, and I was being a bitch." "Mhmm." "Well, what do you _want_ me to say?" "Nothing." "Nothing?" "Did I stutter?" Rouge didn't have to take this. She let her wings expand, ready to take flight, when Roxanne said, "Are you sorry?" Rouge made her wings go back to normal. Of course, she was sorry, but she just couldn't bring herself to say it. After four seconds of silence, Roxanne chuckled, "I didn't think so." Rouge drooped her ears, "Do you think I would be talking to you if I wasn't?" Roxanne stopped walking, she was shocked, _'Was that an apology?'_ Rouge answered with a nod. Roxanne thought to herself _'I guess she knew what I was thinking.' _Roxanne laughed to herself, _'Now to test her.'_ "Are you _really_?" "Yea." "Well then, what does that make us?" Rouge was silent again for five seconds, "I was hoping…friends?" "Is that a question or a statement?" "You tell me." Roxanne looked down at Rouge, expecting her to say something smart, but when she didn't, Roxanne closed her eyes and said, "We are allies... For now." Rouge smiled, _'Well, it's a start.'_

The crowd reached the end of the hallway. At the end, there were three doors. One was directly to Sonic's left, his right, and one right in front of him. Amy looked up at the ceiling and screamed, "Ahh! Sonic! Look! There's a camera up there!" Everyone looked up to the ceiling and, indeed, there was a little black camera. Sonic looked at it, with an angry expression on his face, jumped up, and did the homing attack on it, sending it crashing to the floor. Shadow shouted at Sonic, "You fool! They'll know we're here now!" Sonic shouted back, "They already know we're here!" Shadow knew he had a point, if the camera saw them, then they knew.

The lights went out in the hallway. Sonic simply said, "Shit." Then they blinked red and a siren went off: WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO. Roxanne pulled out her guns and Shadow turned to her, "Are you ready?" She nodded confidently. He hand her his two guns, "Take these, you'll need them more than me!" So, with two guns in her holster and one gun in each hand, she was ready, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't scared shitless.

The two doors to the left and right of the crew opened and robots came out. They were about the size of Knuckles, were black and white, and had guns where their faces should have been. Sonic did the homing attack on a couple and destroyed them. Knuckles and Rouge beat them to pieces. Amy hit them with her hammer. Tails stayed away, since without his tails working properly, he was defenseless. Shadow used Chaos Spear on them to take out 5 at once. Roxanne shot at one. She hit its arm, nothing happened. She shot it in its torso, nothing happened, but when she shot it in its left shoulder area, it malfunctioned, attacking one of its allies. She smirked and shot at more of them in the shoulders. They malfunctioned; some stopped moving, some exploded, some attacked its allies. Eventually, they were destroyed.

Roxanne was proud of herself and had a big grin on her face. She helped Sonic fight. On one of his adventures. _This_ adventure. She became giddy. Sonic ran up to Roxanne and looked her up and down, "Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?" She smiled like a little girl who just found out she is getting a pony for Christmas, "No, I am fan_tas_tic!"

Shadow looked around, confused, "Where did Tails go?" Everyone spun around looking for him. He wasn't to be found. Sonic shouted, "Tails? Tails!" His voice echoed in the hallway. But no reply came. Shadow exasperated, said, "Great! Another thing we have to do now! This is why _I _just wanted to go!"

Knuckles looked at Shadow as he was on his little tantrum and saw behind him, through the flashing red light, a big robot with four long arms with large, box like pinchers, "LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!" Knuckles ran up to it to attack it, but with its pinchers, it scooped him up and trapped him inside. Rouge went to attack the hand to free Knuckles, but it snatched her with its second hand. Amy ran up the robot, hitting it with her hammer, "Let them go! Let my friends go!" The robot hit her with its empty, free claw, knocking her head hard into the wall. She fell with a thud, blood forming around her. Sonic ran up to Amy and shook her, "Amy! Amy! Ames! Wake up! Please, we—" The robot snatched the two hedgehogs in its one claw. Roxanne cried and repeatedly shot at the last, empty claw as it swung at her. Shadow pushed her out of the way, knocking her on the ground. The robot slammed him, with its claw, against the wall, causing him to drop the ice gun. Then it hit him again. And again. And again…..and again. He stood up limping and stumbled to her and fell in front of her. He shouted at her, "Roxanne, get out of here!" She shouted back, "No!" "Go!" "No! I have to save them!" Shadow growled and stood up, ready to protect her. Roxanne (still lying on the ground), tears falling down her face, shot at the robot's arm, severing it off.

The robot decided to retreat, with the two hedgehogs, bat, and echidna taken hostage. Tails was still missing, and all who was left was a weakened Shadow, and Roxanne. The robot quickly retreated through the door facing the two friends. Shadow had blood falling from the back of his head, his face paled.

He stood up, fell, and then stood up again. She stood up to help hold him up. He turned to Roxanne, cradling his left arm, "Roxanne, I want you to go back to the sub." "No, I can't! You're hurt, and the others! They—" "Will be in more peril if we waste time! Listen, go back to the sub!" "I can't leave you here like this!" "If anything were to happen to you, I couldn't live. Now go!" "But—" "GO!" With all his might, he pushed her. He said weakly, "Please, go. I've need to do this…" He jetted his shoes and sped after the robot.

Roxanne, left alone, walked over to her guns she dropped on the ground; picked them up and put them in her holster with her other guns. She heard the robot in the distance and the screams of her allies. Realizing she was the only one who was untouched or harmed, she felt guilty. She felt as if she let everyone down. She cried thinking of their lives and how they could be lost now. Hot tears feel down her face as she thought of Shadow bleeding, weak, obviously very hurt. He couldn't fight, he wouldn't last. The others injured or capture. Not to mention poor Tails missing. She looked down at the ice gun, picked it up and walked toward the end of the cavern.


	10. Forsaken

This is the chapter I have been waiting a long, long time to write. By the way, I titled this chapter forsaken because when I thought it up, I was listening to Within Temptation's _Forsaken_. I thought it fit the mood perfectly, so this is the theme of the chapter. If you have the time, you should listen to it. Read and Review!

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Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Ten-Forsaken 

Roxanne reached the edge of the cavern and the hot air practically smacked her in the face. It was hotter now then it was when they first came went inside the man-made cavern. She felt like a traitor leaving them all behind, but she knew she had to get help. 

She climbed into the sub through the hatch. But inside, she saw one of Eggman's robots; a little orange monkey robot. It looked at her and made a squeaking noise. It opened its chest and pulled out a bomb. Roxanne gasped when she saw it and she felt her stomach do a back flip. It threw the bomb at her. She cocked the ice gun at the hurling, fist-sized bomb and shot at it. The strange, fast-wind noise was heard and the bomb had a frost coating on it. It never exploded. The monkey looked at the bomb as it fell to the floor and it couldn't compute why it didn't explode. It through another bomb at her and she repeated this action until there were nine bombs on the floor. The robo-monkey then, all out of bombs, charged her and she shot it with the ice gun. It stopped dead in its tracks. She then kicked the frozen robot and it shattered into shards of frozen glass and wires. Roxanne let out a sigh of relief and fell on her butt to the floor. She scratched the right side of her right shin on one of the cold shards of metal accidentally, but that mattered not to her. Hoisting the ice gun on her back, she picked up the nine bombs, climbed up the latter, threw the bombs on the sandy beach of the shore, and closed the hatch's door.

Shadow speed quickly diminished as jetted down the corridor after the giant robot and his friends. He was far too exhausted and weak to be running, so he slowed to a slight jog, but even that was difficult for him. The cut on the back of his head was pulsating. The blood seemed to have slowed down. He was still worried about the others and the fate of the planet. But one thing was certain; Roxanne was safe, he was sure of it. He no longer had the guns that he gave to Roxanne in order to protect her, but who was going to protect him. For once, the hedgehog was pessimistic about the success of the mission. He was starting to think that he wouldn't make it. 

But he knew he must, his family depended on him, Arnold, Emily, Marjarie, Roxanne, and even Dot-Dot. But also Marina and her husband. And Jane Doe and John Doe. The fate of the world as they knew it depended on him. He had to do it. He knew he had to. And with this, his strength seemed to come back. He quickened from a jog to a run, and then he sped after the robot. He could see it in the distance. 

As he ran he came to a bridge over hundreds and hundreds of pipes. Running over the small steel bridge (striped black and yellow) and reaching the other side, steam seemed to be everywhere. The moisture in the air caused him to sweat and blink. He tripped over a pipe running along the floor and fell flat on his face. He stood up and brushed himself off. The pain in his head was pulsating. He looked around and all around him were the black and white robots he saw earlier, "Oh, fuck." Before he had the chance to do anything, a robot shot him in the back.

Sonic trapped in the small, claustrophobic darkness that was the giant robot's claw, with Amy; not moving, and a gash on the back of her head. The only source of light was the small crack of light seen through its claw. The light made a line across Amy's face. Sonic shook Amy by her shoulders, "Ames! Wake up! Please wake up. You have to wake up. Please, don't be dead." Taking Amy by the hand, he searched for a pulse, when he was unable to find one, he began to cry. He put his hand in front of her mouth and felt to breath. He moved her face to see her cheeks and lips have gone blue.

Knuckles and Rouge were still fighting to get free from the robot's clutches. Even though it was futile, they persisted. Knuckles stopped when he heard Sonic whimpering. Knuckles didn't think Sonic would cry from being constricted, no matter how much he hated being confined, Knuckles knew something was wrong. More of a command than a question, Knuckles asked, "Sonic, whats wrong?" 

Sonic answered, "Its Amy, I think she's dead!" Knuckles quills spread apart and his eyes went wide, "Oh no." Rouge stopped fighting the robot's hand and spoke to Sonic, "Wait! How can you be sure?" "She's not breathing; I can't find a pulse or nothing. She's blue!" Rouge pressed herself to the edge of the claws so she could talk to Sonic better, "Wait, make sure first; Is she warm still, or cool?" Sonic put his hand on Amy's forehead, then her cheeks, and her arm. (Sonic thought that if she was alive, she would have adored this kind of attention.) "She's still warm." "Then she's alive! Listen to me carefully! She's blue?" "Yea." "Then she is choking. Sit her up straight and smack her back." Doing exactly as Rouge said, Sonic propped Amy up and smacked her back. Nothing. "Anything, Sonic?" "Nothing!" Rouge bit her lip and thought to herself. "You are gonna have to give her CPR! Listen, lie her flat." Sonic laid Amy down flat on the floor of the claw. "Is their anything in her mouth?" Sonic opened her mouth and stuck his finger inside, feeling around. "No, nothing." "Okay, push on her chest with both of your hands 15 times. Then pinch her nose and breath into her mouth for three seconds, let the air be released, then repeat this." And Sonic did just that. Rouge and Knuckles teetered on the edge of anticipation, waiting for Sonic's response. 

After doing this for a few minutes and the movements of the robot not helping matters, Amy remained still. Sonic, defeated, hugged his legs close to him. He failed her, he didn't protect her. Now he felt guilt for all the times he ran from her. He buried his face into his legs.

Cough! Sonic's head shot up quicker than he could ever run. Cough! She coughed! That means she is alive! He crawled on his knees over to his pink friend, the faint light showed her face to no longer be blue, but to be slightly pink. Sonic held her face in his hands, tears falling on it. Amy opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Huh, wh- cough where are we?" Sonic smiled and just hugged her. Amy's eyes went wide and she slowly wrapped her arms around her love. "I thought you were dead…" "What!" "You were choking, I thought you died, but Rouge helped me and now you are okay!" Still holding her close, Amy didn't want to ruin the moment. She held him close, and felt butterflies throughout her body. Rouge clasped her hands together and sighed and thought to herself, _'I wonder if _he_ would do that for me...' _Knuckles shouted, "What's going on? Is she okay?" Rouge shouted back, "Yea, she's fine." Knuckles had a small smile on the left side of his mouth.

But as soon as the miracle happened, it ended. The four where tipped out of the clutches of the giant robot and fell flat on their faces. Sonic, still cradling Amy, looked up and saw someone he hated more than anyone else he even had the displeasure of meeting. He gritted his teeth when he saw a fat man, with a bald head and a ginger mustache, gelled and stiffed to stick straight out. He had circular sunglasses, a red jacket with white and gold decorations on it. And _very_ high black pants. Sonic spat through his gritted teeth, "You'll never get away with this! I will stop you!" Eggman pulled out a gun and pointed it at Sonic's nose, "Tell me where the girl is." Sonic's expression changed, "Wh-What girl?" Eggman pushed the gun into Sonic's right cheek bone, "The human. Where is she?" Sonic lied, "I-I don't know!" Eggman smirked, "Fine. Henchman, shoot them." The four friends eyes widened in fear as robots shot them. 

Knuckles regained consciousness and sniffed the air. It smelled off a coppery, electric smell. He opened his eyes to see a pinkish force field, he looked around and saw his allies around him lying on the ground. Remembering what happened he felt his chest in search of bullet hole, but couldn't find one. He looked at his friends and saw that none of them had bullet holes in them either. He looked to his right and Shadow lied next to where he stood. "Shadow?" Tails was next to Shadow. Knuckles let out a sigh of relief. He noticed they all were still breatheing, so he didn't bother on waking them. He looked directly in front of him, through the pinkish force field, there was a 30 foot high glass tube about 40 feet in radius filled with a red and yellow substance. "Where are we?" 

He heard a groan behind him and turned around to see Rouge roll over and wake up. She sat up and he jogged over to her. She looked at him, "Where are we?" "Captive, I suppose." "Shadow's here! When did he get here?" "Better question: When did we get here? And why aren't we dead? Weren't we all shot?" Rouge held her head, "We were stuck by a tranquilizer. I can feel the side effects." Knuckles looked suspicious, "How do _you _know how tranks feel?" She stood up, with her hands on her hips, "Well, I am a spy. I've been drugged many times." Rouge looked around the room past the force field. Above them, 50 feet in the air, pipes and wires lined the ceiling. She saw the red and yellow liquid inside the glass tube. Then above them, she saw a window and an observation deck, with none other then Eggman inside of it. Rouge grabbed Knuckles hand and pointed with her other hand, "Look, up there!" Knuckles gritted his teeth, "Goddamn you, Eggman!"

Sonic shot up in a heart beat, "Eggman, I'll—Uh, we're are we?" Amy woke at the sound of Sonic' voice. "Uhhh…huh, whats going on?" She rubbed her head. Sonic saw Tails to his left, "Hey, Tails, wake up!" He shook Tails awake, "Huuuuuhh…..uhh, what?" Sonic asked him, "Where didja go?" Tails rubbed his left temple, "I dunno, I felt a sharp pain right here," pointing to his thigh, "and I woke up here." Rouge strutted over, "We were all tranked and brought here." Tails looked around and saw the red and yellow substance. He shouted and pointed, "That's it! That's the super magma! It has to be." 

They all looked at the tube and then heard a maniacal laugh on the loud speaker. It belonged to Eggman, "Hahahaha! Fools! You thought you were going to stop me?" Shadow shouted at Eggman, "Let us out of here, you cunt!" Eggman laughed and shook his head. Wagging his index finger at them he talked to them like children, "Now, now. That isn't exactly how you talk to someone who holds your life in their hands, now is it?" No one said a word, but all held their battle stances.

Eggman laughed, "You fools _still_ think you can stop me? That force field is impenetrable! No matter can escape nor enter it!" Sonic balled his fists, "So what do you plan to do with us then?" "You puny idiot, I plan to kill you!" Amy gasped and ran over to Sonic. Knuckles wrapped his arm around Rouge in a fashion as to protect her. Eggman cackled, "And I'll _even_ tell you how I will do it too! The force field is powered by oxygen. As long as the outside is absorbing oxygen, it is powered. After approximately 1.5 hours, it with begin to electrocute all of you, until you are smoked like sausages! You fools get in my way far too much., so it is time to exterminate you." 

Rouge's ears drooped and she buried her face in Knuckles' chest as he wrapped his other arm around her. Amy and Tails began to cry. Shadow looked at Sonic to see a look of pure hatred on his face. _'I failed. I failed everyone…'_ Amy didn't look at Sonic as she muttered to him, "I'm sorry…" He was confused, "Sorry? Why? You didn't do anything." "Exactly, if I didn't get hurt, you wouldn't have had to help me. And if you didn't help me, you prolly could have whimper beat Eggman…" "Well, you were going to die…I had to…" She sniffle, "We are going to die anyway…" Sonic saw a new side of Amy, and he hated it. He wished she was happy and smiling again.

Shadow gritted his teeth, "Well, since it seems you all have given up, I'm sure you all didn't notice I didn't yet." Shadow clicked his heels and the jets on his shoes flared. He ran in a circle to pick up speed. Once he was at a high enough speed, he ran up the spherical wall of the force field, up to the top, then down, past the gang, and up again. He reated this cycle about 13 times before Rouge said, "Shadow, you aren't getting anywhere." Shadow noticed this, but he couldn't give up hope. 

Eggman sat up there laughing, "Go ahead, Shadow, _run!_ Oh, just so you know, you are speeding up the process by creating so much wind current!" Shadow stopped so quickly that he tripped. He spun and tumbled quite a bit before stopping. When he stopped, Sonic ran up to him to help his friend up. Eggman proudly said over the loudspeaker, "Hahahaaaa! It seems there are no loose seems in this plan. Nothing can stop me from world domination now!" Tails shouted back, "But by speeding up the process of global warming would be damaging the planet you want control of!" "You idiot! If _I_ have the technology to cause it, I can repair it." Amy screamed, "Instead of trying to _destroy_ the world, why don't you use those powers to help with global warming! You will be more admired for that than being the dictating ruler of the world!" Eggman laughed, "That matters nothing to me." 

Rouge had tears in her eyes because she had to say goodbye to the life she loved so much. She would never get the chance to ever find love in this world. But she felt protected in Knuckles arms, so if that's the closest to love she will get until her demise, then she felt fine about that.

Amy loved Sonic, and because of her, they failed. Her heart was filled with regret as she failed not only him, but the world was going to be taken over. She always wanted to go to Hawaii, but this was not how she wanted it to be. She looked at her savior and cried.

Tails cried because of everything. Everything he would miss out on; Love, marriage, children, his friendship with Sonic, being a scientist, and just plain old growing up.

Knuckles tightened his grip around the beautiful Rouge. He failed the Master Emerald, and since he was the last descendant of the Knuckles tribe, in which he was named for, all that history would turn to ashes. His mother and his father died long ago, but at least he would see them once again.

Shadow never had the chance to say good-bye to his family: Marjarie, the women who treated him like a son. Arnold, Marjarie's boyfriend, he didn't know him that well, but now he was family. Emily, he was going to miss her rambunctious behavior and her toothy smile, also the way she calls him 'Slim Shady.' And most of all, Roxanne, the last thing he said to her was 'go!' and he pushed her. He knew now he should have told her how much she meant to him, how she made him a better person, how much he cared. But at least she was safe. Shadow looked down and on his knee, he saw a long green hair. He plucked at it and held it up to the light. It was Roxanne's. Tears flooded his eyes as he stared at it. He stuck it inside his glove so it will be with him when he dies.

Sonic had tears running down his face. He was going to miss the beauty of the world. The planet, and all its inhabitants. He failed the world. But also by failing the world, he failed Roxanne; the main reason he did what he did. He sniffed at the thought of never seeing her beautiful face again. Her smile, her laugh, her smell of her perfume, the way her hair bounced as she walked, even the stubbornness of her, he was going to miss it all. He never had the chance to tell her how much he loved her.

A loud explosion was heard on the steel wall to the right of the spherical force field. Fire and smoke erupted from it. Before the smoke could clear, a teenaged human girl walked through. Her black and green hair pulled tight in a pony-tail as to not have her hair get in her face. She held one of the ice guns in one hand, and the arm of an unknown robot which had a machine gun on the end of it. She had rips in her clothes and blood leaked from the wounds. A few cuts on her face showed that she was in close combat with robots.

Everyone shouted in unison at once, "ROXANNE!" Eggman looked down and pulled out a pair of binoculars from the desk he was at, and looked at the girl with the guns. "No…it can't be…" At the sight of the giant clear tube, she pointed the robotic arm at it, and shot. Only to have the bullets rikashay off of the think glass and bounce back, narrowly missing her as she rolled and tumbled out of the way. 

She saw Eggman in the upper deck of the room, she recognized him from the news reports and his message to the people when he threatened them with the eclipse cannon. She shot at him with the robot arm, but missed him. He ducked out of the way and hid under his desk, "How…?"

She thought since she could break the tube, what about the pipes along the ceiling? She pointed the gun up in the air and continually shot at them, severing a lot of them off from the ceiling. They came crashing down and she dodged them. She stopped dodgeing them and froze when she saw a pipe sticking straight up. Through her stomach. 

One of the thick pipes (about eight inches in radius) was pierced through her stomach, through her intestines. As it went through her, a shiver went through her body, and she saw starts. Her body was slightly arched at the weight of the pipe as it rooted her to the spot as it stuck in the floor.

Sonic screamed, "NOOO!" Shadow screamed, "ROXANNE!" The others just screamed and gasped. Sonic pressed his face against the force field, as well as Shadow. Sonic starting crying hysterically and pounded the force field, "No, Roxanne! I'm coming! I'll save yooouu!" Shadow fell to the ground, on his knees, staring at his best friend in the distance. He began to hyperventilate, "No…gasp noo…gasp not again…!"

Shadow looked at Roxanne as she coughed up blood. The image of Maria being shot by the government agents flooded his mind. The blood. The death. Of his best friend. It was happening again. "Its happening again…gasp not again! gasp…not…" _"Shadow, I beg of you! Please do it for me!" Maria coughed up blood. _He watched helplessly as Roxanne gagged and blood flew out of her mouth. 

She turned her face to look at them. Tails and Amy looked away from the gruesome sight. Rouge began to cry hysterically for the girl who used to be her best friend. Knuckles had a tear in his eye. The last time he saw someone die, was his mother, and that was when he was young, so he has seen a violent death before. She burped up the words, "I'm sorry," very weakly as blood came out.

Roxanne knew she was going to die. How could she not, but she was not going to die in vain. She weakly held the machine gun in her right arm and repeatedly shot at the tube, the bullets just bounced back and hit her. One in the arm, one in the neck, three in the left thigh and six in the right, she screamed from the pain and burped up more blood. 

Sonic cried and screamed at her, his voice cracking, "No, Roxanne, please, stop!" Shadow started shaking and just saying words, "Roxanne! Sorry! No! Help! Maria! Again! Dead! Whyyyy!" Not a word was heard from Eggman, none of them even knew if he was till up there. Probably not. Coward.

She blinked the tears from her eyes as she remembered she was going to die, but she didn't have the strength to say good-bye to anyone. She gritted her bloody teeth as she held the ice gun up with all her might and repeatedly shot at the tube. The marbles froze the glass on the side she faced. Dropping the gun, she held up the much heavier, robotic arm and shot at the frozen glass. After about six seconds of shooting, the glass broke. And out flowed the super magma.

Now the only people who watched were Sonic and Shadow, as the others hid their faces. Both crying and being hysterical, screaming random things at Roxanne, as if it would help now. The magma hit the metallic floor of the room. It flowed and melted the pipes and the floor. As well as Roxanne's feet. She screamed in agony and squeezed tight her eyes. 

The magma rose up to her knees and as the bottom half of her body melt, she slid down the pipe, now the magma surrounded her thighs and pelvis. She screamed and screamed and wished and prayed to die. She never wanted to die, except for now, for she was in too much physical and emotional agony.

Sonic and Shadow's hearts pained as they heard the screams of Roxanne. Smoke and steam was rising from her melting body. By the time the magma reached her upper stomach, the screams, twitches, and movement stopped. She was dead.

Shadow fell all the way to the floor and saw the magma rising around the force field. After twenty minutes of hysterics from everyone, the steel floor was melting underneath them. The magma now rose above the force field, leaving Roxanne body, if _anything _was left, in the magma. All the sudden the sphere they were in went crashing down. 


	11. Rise From The Ashes

Read and Review!

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Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Eleven-Rise From The Ashes

The sphere went crashing down. The magma the once surrounded the sphere was gone and replaced with water. Ever since the magma surrounded the sphere, the force field was weakened and began to buckle. But now, since its submersion, the sphere disappeared. All around them, the magma that melted the base was in the water, turning into rock.

Sonic couldn't swim. He hated the water and he just didn't know how to. Plus, his mind was weighed down with remorse. Tails grabbed his arm and started swimming to the surface of the water, dodging rocks as they fell. Rouge lead Shadow to the surface since he also didn't swim. Amy and Knuckles just swam to safety. 

They swam for what seemed an eternity. Sonic started swallowing water. Tails swam fast as he could. _'We're almost there, hold on, Sonic.'_ After about ten seconds, Tails' head bobbed on the surface of the water, as well as Sonic's, soon joined by everyone else. They were about twenty feet away from Mea Kuna. Once reaching the shore, everyone stood up and began walking. Some were crying, some had seldom expressions on their faces. Shadow was silent, but had a thousand thoughts running through his mind. Sonic walked next to Shadow. 

It has been a day since they were on the shores of Mea Kuna. Sonic just sat in the corner of submarine hugging his legs close to him with is ears flat against his head. Often, he buried his face in his legs and softly cried. Amy would come over and comfort him. Shadow laid face up on the bench, also crying every once in a while. The others would sometimes come over and try to talk to him, but he ignored them. After being ignored, they would leave.

Sonic wiped the tears off of his face and looked around, seeing Shadow lying on the bench, he got up and walked over to him. He sat Indiana style on the ground, next to Shadow. Sonic looked up at his friend and saw a tears running down his temple. Sonic wiped it away and Shadow looked at him at the feeling of his touch. Sonic sadly laughed, "Whadder we gonna do?" Shadow stared at the steel ceiling again. Just when Sonic thought Shadow wouldn't speak, he answered, "I don't know." Sonic teared up again, "How are we going to tell them?" _Them_ meaning her family. 

Shadow rolled over to face Sonic, then slid off the bench to sit on the floor next to him. Sonic chuckled sadly, Shadow question why, "What?" Sonic looked at him with puffy pink eyes, a quivering lip and a teary, red face, "Its just funny. All the times I did this, I never got hurt once. Not really, not too bad." He didn't remember dying at the hands of Mephilles not too long ago. Shadow sighed, "It should have been me. I was my fault." Sonic's voice cracked, "No it wasn't. It was mine; I should have not let her come in the cave at all. I should have stood my ground…but I couldn't say no to her…" Shadow looked at Sonic and his expression pained him. "No, it _was_ mine. I tried to protect her and send her back. But I should have known she would come back in. I wasn't thinking. If _she_ was captured, and not me, I could have saved everyone, kill Robotnik and stopped it." 

The two hedgehogs looked up to see Rouge standing there. She kneeled down beside them, "But she was a hero. She gave her life to save the world _and_ our lives. If it wasn't for her, we would be dead and the world would be no longer as we knew it." The two hedgehogs nodded sadly and stared at the floor. Rouge's ears drooped and she left the two alone. 

Sonic looked at Shadow and smiled, "Ya know, you mean a lot to me, Shad." Shadow didn't want to admit it to Sonic, but he felt the same, so he nodded. Shadow wrapped his arms around Sonic and gave him another comforting hug, just like he did when Sonic confessed his love for Roxanne to him. As they embraced, they both cried more. Sonic whispered, "We'll never see her again…" Shadow mumbled under his breath, "Maria…"

Maybe Shadow wasn't meant to have friends. He lost Maria in a flight to save himself and he lost Roxanne as she tried to save him. Maybe he was just too selfish. Maybe he should accept his fate from now on instead of having someone save him. He must be so weak if he has to have someone save him whenever his life is threatened. And the ones who have to suffer are his friends. After all, since he is immortal, everyone in this room is going to die eventually, leaving him all alone. Abandoning him. Forsaking him. Just as he forsook Maria and Roxanne.

They arrived at the abandoned base where Amy found the submarine. Sonic used the mystic light and his hands illuminated. They walked through the base and the light began to diminish as they reached the entrance of the base. The sunlight was blocked by the trees as the sunlight struggled to push itself through the tropical leaves.

They walked along the dirt path in silence. No one said a word. Sharp pangs were felt in Sonic and Shadow's stomachs as they knew soon they would have to tell Roxanne's family of her death. Each step they took lead to more despair, more dread. Everyone stopped crying long ago, except, of course, for Shadow and Sonic. Which, sporadically, they went into fits of. 

Sonic stopped walking. Shadow noticed and stopped also. When the others notice, they looked from Shadow to Sonic. With his ears drooped low, Sonic said sheepishly, "I think I am going to sit down..." He walked over to a tree and sat down. Leaning against it, he put his hands on his knees. Shadow went to sit with him, he said, "No, you guys go, I need to be alone." Everyone's ears drooped and they slowly walked away, looking back every once in a while until Sonic faded into the distance.When they were gone, Sonic started crying again, his face buried in his hands, his throat hurt from crying, as did his heart. "Rox, why didja have to go?" 

The gang minus Sonic continued walking through the Mystic Ruins until they came across a cave. Knuckles walked toward it, "Well, this is me. See you guys later." They said there farewells absentmindedly as Knuckles walked through the cave to the shrine of the Master Emerald. Shadow looked at Amy, Tails, and Rouge and nodded. Then we went to follow Knuckles.

Shadow walked alongside Knuckles as Knuckles looked down at the small Master Emerald. Knuckles (still looking at the gem) said, "I'm sorry about your loss." Shadow nodded and looked at the ground, _'Roxanne…'_ Knuckles became confused, "Wait. Why are you coming with me?" "I have no where else to go." "I thought you said you live with— Oh…" "If this is a problem, I'll leave." "No, its fine." 

This was strange, Knuckles and Shadow didn't talk to each other like the others did. They both were kind of closed off from others, but then again, maybe that's why they are suddenly getting along. Or maybe it was Knuckles pity toward Shadow since him losing his best friend, and his home, most likely. It also could be since they both lost people so close and so dear to him. Knuckles never knew his father, so that didn't matter to him, but he watched his mother die. As did Shadow with Maria and Roxanne. Whatever brought them together now, it was comforting.

When they exited the end of the cave, the ruins of the shrine of the Master Emerald was close. As was the small hut Knuckles lived in. The two walked across the bridge in silence. A girl was singing in the other side of the shrine. When the singing stopped, a little pink ball of light flew in front of them. The orb morphed into Tikal. "Hello Knuckles, I see you've returned." She turned to the black hedgehog standing next to him, "Hello." "Mm," he grunted. Tikal's face grew sad, "I sense great a great loss, what has happened?" A tear slid from Shadows left eye. Knuckles answered, "We lost someone." Tikal looked at Shadow with a sad smile on her face, "She was beautiful, wasn't she?" Shadow looked at the pretty echidna, "Inside as well as out."

Tikal walked up to Shadow and took his hands in her's, "She will always be remembered. The Gods will welcome her with open arms and—What is that?" She looked down at his left hand. Shadow held his hand to his face and examined, "What?" "This," she pulled the green hair that Shadow put in his glove out and looked at it, "Was this her's?" He teared again and nodded. She held the green hair at each end with her thumbs and forefingers. She looked past it, to him, "It is possible to bring her back, but we would need her entire body, the Chaos Emeralds can perform miracles and—" "But she was destroyed…" Shadow interrupted. Tikal's quills flattened and she appeared sad. 

She held the hair in her fingers and she looked deep in thought. Knuckles asked her, "What are you thinking?" She looked at Shadow and Knuckles, "There is still a way. But I will tell you, it only worked once since the creation of the spell." Shadow looked at her, his tears stopped falling, eyes wide, "Wha—You can bring her back?" She had a sad expression, "But be warned, it has only worked once out of all the numerous times it has been cast. So the chance is slim…" "But there is still a chance…" Shadow had a small smile on his face.

Shadow, Knuckles, and Tikal were inside the Echidna Temple. Tikal somehow lit up torches of the altar room. Knuckles looked around confused, "Are you a witch, Tikal?" Tikal turned to him and smiled slightly, "An initiated priestess is the correct term." She made a circle outlined with old white chalk, she still held the green hair in her fingers. She spoke, "Now, we will need a host from the living." Knuckles looked confused and didn't know what she meant, "What? Are you talking about possession?" She giggled, "Of course not! I mean, a host!" She walked over to Shadow and plucked a single short black hair from his head, "Ow! What are you—" "A host." She held up his hair. After a second, Knuckles and Shadow, in unison, said, "Oh…!" 

She took the short black and the long green hair and knotted them together. Afterwards, she placed it on the dusty floor in the circle. She took ten dusty but white candles and placed them all on the line of the circle. She picked up a stone scepter with looked as if it resembled an echidna, but now was worn down and weathered. She walked around the circle with her eyes shut, clockwise, three times. The scepter pointed toward the circle. Shadow prayed again, he prayed that the spell would work. When she reached the starting point of the circle, she opened her eyes and twirled in a circle, counter-clockwise. Then she held her arms high in the air and spoke quietly, "Fallen from stars, mother of sound and quiet rest, rise from the ashes, easter of west. Awoken." She repeated this several times, so much that Shadow had lost count. 

His ears dropped and all hope he had was gone now. Nothing happened. Knuckles looked at Shadow and put his hand on his shoulder. Shadow was let down again, his broken heart broken more. He should have known this childish game of foolishness was to be proven false. 

Tikal stood up and put the scepter on the floor and turned to look at the duo, "Now, we wait." Knuckles raised his right eyebrow, "Wait?" Shadow got hopeful, "It worked?" Tikal said, "I do not know yet, only time will tell. And if it does, we will know in three days," as she held up her index, middle, and ring finger. Shadow said, "Three days? But what if nothing happens?" "Then nothing will happen. This is the last solution." She remember something, "Oh, just so you know, if she does return to us, she _will_ have _every_ injury, scar, sickness, anything along those lines she had exactly one day before her demise." Shadow nodded, this didn't cause a problem.

Knuckles left the Echidna Temple hours ago, it was 10:23pm, and Shadow and Tikal sat on the floor staring at the two hairs. As far as Shadow noticed, nothing has happened. He felt as if he was wasting his time, but for Roxanne, he would wait there and hope for the best. Tikal and him would occasionally talk, mainly it was him talking of how they went to Mea Kuna and Roxanne's heroic side showed. "…She really was an amazing person, from what you tell me," Tikal smiled at him. He smiled slightly, for the first time since Roxanne's death, "So do you think it will work?" "I will put neither hope nor doubt in your mind, for I honestly don't know. But pray, Shadow, pray." 

So Shadow decided to learn more from the spell, "So, what are the conditions of the spell? What made it work before?" She shrugged her shoulders, "No one knows. All I know is you have to die a violent death…" Check. "…but not from sickness, but by the hands of sticks and stones." Uhh, check. "Otherwise, I do not know. I'm afraid only time will tell." Shadow was starting to feel tired, so he got up and walked to the other side of the stony room, but before sitting down, he turned his head to look at her, "If this does work, I will be eternally in you debt." Tikal simply smiled at him.

Shadow woke up next day at 8:35am. He rolled over, sat up, then rubbed the back of his neck, _'Christ, I wish I could sleep in a bed.'_ He looked to see the orange echidna standing in front of the circle, her back to him. She spoke to him without looking at him, "I am surprised you weren't awake before now." She spun around and had a cute smile on her face, her dark blue eyes lighting up her face. He stood up and walked over to the circle and looked down at the two hairs.

Only to find that the two hairs were gone…replaced by a small gray thing about the size of a thumb. It looked like a piece of gray feces. Shadow's stomach did a back flip. "Uhh, what is that?" Tikal looked at him and studied his face, with a smile on her face, "That is Roxanne." Shadows eyes got as big as saucers, his jaw dropped, and his mouth formed a _giant_ grin. He pulled Tikal into a back-breaking hug. In doing so, he picked her up off the ground and spun around. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back, smiling into his shoulder. He started crying again, his voice cracking slightly, "Thank you! Thank you sooo much! How can I ever repay you?" He pulled her away, with his hands on her shoulders to look at her, she smiled, "Just make sure she is happy."

Shadow laid on the ground outside the circle, careful of not going past the line in case that had something to do with it. He propped his head up on his hands and stared in wonder at the gray object. Tikal did the same. She smiled, "I can't believe it! I cast the spell that was only ever successful once. I wonder what it was that I did." Shadow asked, "But what is the gray thing?" "It is legend that the person given new life is hatched from a cocoon. So I guess it will grow." Tikal thought for a moment, "If she is reborn, do you think she will be nude." Shadow quickly looked at her, "Uhh, most likely. Should I, uh, go get clothes?" Tikal nodded, "It would be nice." Shadow stood up and clicked his heels, speeding off.

Sonic must have sat by that tree for hours, and then fallen asleep. Slight drool leaking from the corner of his mouth. A strong gust of wind quickly went past him. Then that gust of wind stopped and jogged back over to Sonic. Shadow kneeled down and shook Sonic awake. "Sonic? Sonic? Wake up!" After Sonic not waking, he violently shook him, "Sonic! Wake the fuck up!" "Ahhh! I'm up, Dad, I'm—Shadow?" "No, _I'm_ Shadow, now come with me, quick!" When Sonic just sat there, this annoyed Shadow. Sonic said sadly, "Why?" Shadow took Sonic by the hand and ran and pulled him along. When Sonic stopped tripping and ran by himself, he angrily said, "Whadderya doing? Why are we running? I just don't feel like running no more…" Shadow chuckled, was Sonic in for quite a tale.

Sonic, running faster than he ever did before, and ahead of Shadow, was headed for the train station. As they climbed the rickety wooden, mossy stairs to the train station, they heard the loud speaker say, "The train heading for San Francisco station _Montacapp_ will be departing soon." They got into the train and Sonic literally threw money at the ticket man and took his seat. With dignity, Shadow took his seat next to the overly excited and happy blue hedgehog. Sonic literally was bouncing in his seat, "So what store are we going to?" The blue hedgehog had a big happy, but dopey grin on his face, which made Shadow snicker, "I don't know, where you buy clothes?" "Well, Roxy liked shopping at Bomber BOOM, so let's go there!" 

Shadow couldn't help but smile at the blue hedgehog, he was so happy. It was almost cute. _'Cute? Bah! Never!'_ Shadow looked away from Sonic and stared out the window. The seat they were sitting was moving as Sonic bounced up and down. Okay, Shadow was excited, ecstatic, but this foolishness was _too_ much. "Do you _mind?_" Sonic stopped, "Sorry, I'm just excited!" Sonic thought suddenly got into his head, "Hey, I gave that guy all the money I had, how are we gonna pay for all of this?" Shadow smirked, "I got a discount."

They arrived at Bomber BOOM. The store's sign lit up red and yellow, and it was shaped like a cliché cartoon bomb. Shadow put his hand up signaling Sonic to stop, "I will get the stuff, I'll be out soon." Sonic rubbed the back of his neck, "Uhh, okay." Shadow went in the store and looked around. A lot of girl clothes. Some meant for humans, some meant for furries (as they were called, whether they had fur or not). He had no idea what size she was in anything, so he picked up a black tee-shirt with a red butterfly on it (mainly because _he_ liked red), a pair of pajama bottoms with peppermints on them, and a random pair of socks. When still looking around, he saw a little silver thing with a little ball on it, a small bar with a flat disc at the end. He recognized this to be a 'lip ring,' as Roxanne called it. So he picked that up too and looked at it in the small plastic packaging. He wasn't even going to try looking for underwear or shoes. _'She'll make do until we get home.' _When he was completely done, he made sure no one was watching (which they weren't) and sped out of the store, knocking stuff over as he did.

Sonic, leaning against the wall, was whistling when Shadow came out. Shadow grabbed Sonic's arm and 'lead' him back to the train station. When they got back on the train (they snuck on, of course since they had no money) and took their seats, Sonic wore a look of suspicion, "Why isn't it in a bag?" "They were out," Shadow lied. "How much was it?" "I don't remember." After a second, Sonic gasped really loud, "You _stole_ this, didn't you? Shadow just looked at him and smirked. Sonic pursed his lips. Shadow grinned and decided to toy with the blue hedgehog, "Oh, c'mon, do be so _fussy_!" making the last word sound very stereotypically 'gay.' Sonic smirked, "Wow, you're butt pirate." Shadow smirked again. He leaned his head on Sonic's shoulder and said, "You are _sooo_ cute when you talk _dirty_ to me!" He picked his head up and looked at Sonic, the blue hedgehog's face was pink. Well, he was in an unusually good mood, under the circumstances, and he had to pass the time somehow. 

They arrived at the altar room at 11:23am and Tikal was there watching the cocoon. It grew twice in size, length wise and width wise. Tikal turned around to see Sonic, "I'm assuming he told you…?" Sonic nodded and walked over to the circle about to step inside of it when Shadow shouted, "No! Stop!" Sonic stopped in his tracks and turned to Shadow, "What?" Shadow said, "Don't walk past the line." Sonic did as he was told and looked down at the gray cocoon (which looked more like a cocoon now), "That's Roxanne?" he said sarcastically. Tikal said, "Well, it hasn't even been a day yet. She will grow." Shadow sat down, Indian style in front of the circle, staring silently at the cocoon. Sonic sat down next to him and spoke in amazement, "It's hard to believe this little thing will be Roxy." "Mmm," grunted Shadow. "It's also gonna be weird since what happened to her, ya know… That we can talk to her again." Shadow looked at Sonic and saw Sonic was tearing up. She gave him a playful punch, "C'mon, man up." Even though, inside, Shadow was thinking the same exact thing.

It was two and a half days since that moment. Knuckles would come by a couple times a day with random fruits (some unidentifiable) and a couple jugs a river water. But he was not there for he left a few minutes ago. The trio was eating bananas watching the cocoon which was now the size of Shadow, lying down. Shadow didn't like what he saw, "…but I don't understand, if that is Roxanne, shouldn't that cocoon be bigger?" Sonic was defensive and said, "She's not _fat!_" "I didn't say she was! I mean she's over a foot taller then us, and this thing is no bigger than me." Tikal said, "Sonic, he is right, it really should be bigger. And _it_ is supposed to be happening anytime now." Shadow, finishing his banana, tossed it behind him and stood up, looking suspicious at the cocoon, "Is she going to be a midget?" Tikal looked sad, "I know as much as you do, Shadow."

They sat there for another ten hours. Nothing happened and it didn't grow at all. Sonic held the clothes in his hand, absentmindedly stroking them with his thumbs. Shadow was fuming and Tikal was worried. Shadow's ears were straight back in anger, "It's been four days, whats going on?" Sonic said, "Jeez, Shad, we are going through 16 years of life being born again in three, give it time." "I did give it time, why isn't she coming out?" Sonic stood up, "Just wait! God!" Shadow balled his fist, "Ha! You're one to talk, talking about waiting. I waited _50 years_ to be unfrozen! You don't know what its like to—" "Shut up, faker!" "Oh, who are you calling a faker you motherfuckin'—" "STOP! Look!" Tikal pointed at the cocoon.

The big gray cocoon was wiggling slightly. The three stopped and stared at it, frozen on the spot. Sonic held the clothes up in readiness. The cocoon sounded like wood being snapped as it was cracking open. Slowly, it cracked open. Sonic's stomach did a backflip so fast, he almost threw up. Shadow stopped breathing and watched. It opened more and it spread apart. A hand reached through the crack and Tikal gasped really loud. The hand retreated back into the cocoon. Sonic questioned, "Roxanne?" A female grunt was heard from inside and the cocoon shook more. Sonic and Shadow didn't know what to do, should they help? Tikal walked over and peeked inside, she began tearing at the cocoon. She looked inside and saw the face of the creature inside. She stood up and backed away slowly. Shadow asked, "What? Whats wrong?" "She is not who she…"

Tikal grabbed the shirt from Sonic and rushed back over to the cocoon, she looked inside again. She began tearing at the cocoon again and a physical body was seen by Shadow and Sonic, both turning their heads away at the sight of nakedness, but didn't see the face since she was blocked by Tikal. Tikal threw the shirt over the girl's body and she wore it like a dress. After a second, Sonic peeked up and stared. Sonic pulled on Shadow's arm and he looked up too. Tikal was right, this was not what they were expecting. 

In front of them, what they saw was not a human girl, but a black hedgehog girl with fur patterns like Rouge. Her black quills flat down, instead of up like Sonic and Shadow's. She had a pair of icy blue eyes that matched the shade that Roxanne had. The girl looked very confused. She looked at her hands then to her surroundings and the three furries staring at her, "Wha—Whats going on? Where am I? Why am I so short?" Sonic stuttered, "R-Roxanne?" The girl looked at them, "Sonic, I though that I—?" Shadow walked up to the hedgehog girl. He eyed her suspiciously. She asked, "Shad, whadder you doing?" The girl had Roxanne's facial feature; her button nose (now black and animal like), the way her mouth moved, her eye movements, her curves, and most of all; her voice.


	12. Anney

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Rise From The Ashes

Chapter Twelve-Anney

Shadow circled the hedgehog girl like a falcon. This made her very uneasy. Then Shadow stopped in front of her, "Are you Roxanne?" She looked taken aback, "Uh, yea?" Sonic pushed past Shadow, "Shad, whyer ya _questionin'_ her? I can just_ look_ at her and tell it's her!" Sonic looked down at her with tears in his eyes, and when she saw his, she teared too. She smiled, "Hey shortstuff." Sonic pulled her into a tight hug and she wrapped her arms around him, she cried into his shoulder, "I'm alive…But how…" Sonic simply said, "Wait." He held her for what seemed an eternity, he just didn't want to let go. Sonic buried his face into her black hair and her quills, and cried more "I'm sorry, Rox. You should never have came with us! Now you're not human no more. It's all my fault! I—" Shadow walked up to them, "No, it was no one's fault but mine; I could have made you turn back numerous times." "No, it was mine, I'd—" Roxanne got annoyed, "You think I would have went back if _you_ two told me to?" She put her hands on her hips, "Gosh, guys, I am shocked!" She made a mock angry face.

Shadow smiled slightly, this was definitely Roxanne. But only one thing puzzled him, "Tikal, why didn't she become human?" Tikal bit her finger in thought, staring at Roxanne (Which made Roxanne uncomfortable). Sonic piped up, "Because she _was_ human before." Tikal's jaw dropped in realization, "Of course! The last time this spell was cast, it was legend that a fox died and when a loved one couldn't find a fox hair, they used there own, which was a hawk feather! The body was formed from the hawk feather and the personality, looks, memories came from the fox hair!" Sonic said, "So it had to be of a different species!" Tikal smiled widely, "All the other times it was cast, it was with two hairs of the same species!" 

Sonic turned slightly pink when he said, "Uh, Rox? How'r we gonna take you home without pants?" Roxanne looked down to realize the only thing she was wearing was the shirt, which was very big on her and fell very high on her thigh, "Uhh…" Tikal turned to Shadow, "Take this." It was a red chaos emerald. Sonic laughed, "Hey Shad, where is _your_ emerald at?" Shadow defensively said, "It's at the house, I didn't grab it when we were rushed to leave. Shadow said, "So we can chaos control, then make our way home."

'_Oh fuck!'_ How was Roxanne going to explain becoming a hedgehog? She has done some pretty farfetched things in her life that she had to explain to her mother, but _this?_ She grunted as the three walked through the tunnel with the train tracks beneath their feet, her's worst of all, since she was barefoot, so it was painful. She couldn't help but feel nervous that a train was going to come back and squish them. But since the world was under the influence of Chaos Control, it wouldn't happen, but she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. She was not looking forward to her family's reactions, that's even if they believed her. 

After a couple hours of walking (which _killed_ poor Roxanne's feet. They got to the Montacapp train station, which was about a 20 minute walk to Roxanne and Shadow's house. Roxanne was a girl, after all, so she smirked, "Hey, uhh, can I go shopping?" Shadow stopped and turned around to say, _"What?" _She shuffled her feet, "well, since I am only wearing _this," _she plucked at the shirt, "and my other clothes I got a home _definitely_ won't fit me no more, so I thought I get some new clothes?" Shadow smirked, Sonic groaned, he knew where this was going. Shadow lead the two down the street, "Of course. I got a special discount at that store." Sonic threw his arms up in the air and groaned. 

Since the world was still under the influence of Chaos Control, time was frozen. Roxanne was like a kid in a candy store, able to get _anything_ in the store she wanted, from Shadow's _special_ discount. Of course she knew what he meant as soon as he said that, but she didn't care. Sonic thought the opposite; he knew stealing was wrong, it would have consequences. But Roxanne looked so happy when she found stuff she wanted, so it put him at ease a little bit. It was strange walking around the store, all the frozen people. Roxanne had seven _huge_ bulging bags of clothes, accessories that would fit her now. They were in the store for about two hours by now. Shadow was sitting in the area with the shoes, on of the bench's you try shoes on. He was getting tired of waiting there, but he felt it _was_ his fault for her death, so he wanted to make her happy. Sonic, of course, was her little lap dog following her around the store carrying her five of her seven bags. Shadow would occasionally look at the boxes and boxes of shoes she sat next to him on the bench. _'If she even _thinks_ I am carrying all these home, she's got another thing coming.'_ Roxanne walked up to Shadow, with Sonic in toe, and said, "I think I'm done." Shadow groaned, "You better be done, I've been sitting here for hours!" She blew him off, "Oh, its only been two." "Yea, two too long." 

She was wearing a short black tank top that showed off her flat stomach and slight cleavage. The slightly baggy black pants she was wearing had two small straps hanging on each leg with two black belts A pair of black and white adidas exactly the same as the ones she wore while on their adventure. She found black fingertipless gloves and two spiked bracelets. In her ears, she wore two small hoops and three small silver studs in each ear. In her lip, she wore the silver stud Shadow got for her, an in her navel, a silver and faux diamond barbell. Around her neck she wore a metallic ball chain. 

Sonic mocked Roxanne, "Look, Shad, she isn't naked no more." She turned around to face Sonic, "I was _not_ naked." "Fine, fine, but you weren't wearing pants." "You never wear pants!" "But that's different! A male furrie doesn't have to wear clothes! Its like human guy not wearing a shirt. Its basically the same thing." "Except they wear pants." "Unlike you." "Shuddup, shortshit." "Hey! You're shorter than me!" He held his hand up to the top of his head, and then moved it over her head, "You're like three inches shorter than me!" "You'll always be shortshit to me." Shadow groaned at their bickering. Shadow went over to the counter and took a couple plastic bags and dumped the shoes in them. He definitely wasn't carrying all those boxes; it would be easier to carry the shoes in bags than in boxes in bags.

Roxanne's stomach did so many flips as she walked down the street of her house. But she felt okay when she remembered her two best friends were by her side. It would take some getting used to to seeing them taller than her. Well, actually, everything was taller than her. She was only 3'0. She felt so small. When she reached her house, she dropped her bags and froze, "I-I can't! I can't do it!" She heard Emily laughing inside the house. She ran next door to Sonic's house and ran through the already open door. She ran up his stair and locked herself in his bathroom. 

When the two male hedgehogs finally reacted, they ran into his house and saw Marina saw sitting on the couch crocheting a baby blue sweater. It was just Sonic's size. He knew just by looking at it, it was being made for him, he groaned on the inside. Marina looked at him, and went back to crocheting, "You're sure going to have a lot of explaining to do when Marge sees her _new_ daughter." Shadow was surprised, "You-You _knew_ it was-?" "Well, of course I did! I've known the girl for 10 years." 

Sonic and Shadow stood outside the bathroom door and knocked, "Hey Rox, you gotta come out, your family is gonna wanna know you're okay." Muffled by the door, she said, "I can't do it! I'm afraid!" Shadow pleaded, "Roxanne, Sonic's mother knew it was you. Marjarie will be wanting to know that you're safe." Roxanne cried, "I can't! You don't understand!" Shadow furrowed his brow, "No, I don't. You weren't afraid to risk your life for all of us, but you're afraid to confront your mother? Your family who loves you?" Sonic's ears drooped, "Are you scared to tell her everything." They heard a whimpering, "Mhmm," through the door. Sonic asked, "Do you want us to tell them, then show them you?" Silence for a few seconds, then they heard a second "mhmm."

Sonic picked up the numerous bags in both hands and Shadow went to knock on the brown door of the Addley household. They looked to the left window next to the door and saw Emily's toothy happy face, she screeched and squeaked, "SLIM SHADY! SLIM SHAAADY!" Shadow smiled slightly, he missed her, even though her squeaky voice was sometimes annoying. They heard loud, quick footsteps coming towards them, The door flung open to see Arnold and Marjarie standing there with expectant faces. Marjarie pratically yelled, "Where's Roxanne? Where is she?"

After all the shouting from Arnold and Marjarie, after all the tears from everyone, after all the disbelief from the two humans, Sonic and Shadow got their story out to the two. Emily was sent to her room, so she didn't know a thing. Marjarie said, "This is pretty stange story you two have told me. My daughter was _killed_? And now she's okay. But she's a _hedgehog?_" Shadow and Sonic nodded. The story did sound made up, but it wasn't. Shadow muttered, "But it's true." She furrowed her brow at him, "And _you! _You put my daughter in such danger! You should be put in _jail_. I shouldn't even let you come into this house _again!_" Shadow nodded, _'Well, this was to be expected.'_ "But I can't, you are like my son…" Shadow snapped is head to look at the woman. She had a disappointed face, "…and you mean a lot to everyone here. If I was _smart_ , I would tell you to leave, but then again, I have made some pretty stupid decisions in my life, so..." She just trailed off. Shadow got up and went over to the raven-haired woman, and hugged her. Arnold just smiled at the hedgehog. 

Marjarie walked up the stairs leading to Sonic's bathroom. Marjarie was nervous to see what she will see, after all; the girl she was about to see was not the girl she raised alone for 16 years. Marjarie knocked on the door, "Anney? It's me." Roxanne was silent for a minute before muttering a muffled, "…hi." Arnold took Marjarie's hand and squeezed it. He looked down at his girlfriend and weakly smiled at her before saying, "Anney, open up…uh, please." After a few silent seconds, the lock on the door clicked and unlocked, she slowly opened the door, staring at the floor. Her mother gasped unnecessarily loud, which caused Roxanne to cringe. She let out a small whimper and covered her face with her hands. Marjarie kneeled down to look at her daughter, the daughter who was once human. Marjarie took Roxanne's hands and removed them from her face, then put her index finger under Roxanne's chin to lift up her face. Roxanne looked ashamedly at her mother, her mother looked into her icy eyes and smiled, "Roxanne, please don't cry, it doesn't suit you." Roxanne smiled and embraced her mother.

Her mother teared up and cried into her daughter's hair and quills. This was going to take some getting used to, but she knew it was her daughter still. She still looked like the old Roxanne, despite the fact she was now a furrie. Not that this mattered to Marjarie, she was not prejudiced. She smiled at the thought of Shadow, now since him and her were hedgehogs, now it was like they really were brother and sister. After she let go of her daughter she looked at her and cried; all the pain she must have had to go through dying. All the blood, all the struggle of trying to breathe, the feeling of seeing and feeling your body melt from under you. Not to mention what happens after death; she didn't bother to ask Roxanne, for Roxanne never told her. Arnold kneeled down and looked at his step daughter. He didn't realize until now what it is like to lose something you love. He would have just as heart broken if it was his biological daughter, Emily, this had happened to. He too thought of the pain she had to bear, but all that mattered was that she was alive and well. Marjarie gasped as she stood up, sharp as a dart, "What about Emily?" Arnold stopped breathing. Apparently, they forgot about this tiny fact. 

Sonic and Shadow waited in the living room with Marina, they just finished explaining the story of Roxanne's death and rebirth. Marina shook her head and laughed, rustling her son's quills, "My God, the trouble you get into." Marina smiled, "I guess you'll be wanting to spend the night at Roxanne's" Sonic shook his head, "Nah, I think I need a _good_ night's sleep." Shadow watched as the three walked down the stairs, looking happy, but recovering from being tearful. Arnold and Marjarie said there farewells to Sonic and Marina. 

Shadow stood up and smirked at Sonic, "I guess I'll see you later." Sonic nodded, "Hopefully sooner than later." Shadow went to leave when Sonic grabbed his arm. Shadow turned around to face Sonic and Sonic said warmly, "Hey, promise me something?" Shadow nodded, Sonic whispered, "If something happens to me, promise me you take good care of her." Shadow smiled, "Okay." Roxanne walked over to Sonic and hugged him, he turned pink and when the hug was over, she said, "Well, that was something else." He said under his breath, "It sure was." She smiled n he lieft corner of her mouth, "I mean, I had a once in a life time opportunity, I was scared, but I took it. And if I could make the same decision again, I wouldn't change a thing." Sonic smiled and felt his heart fly. "Well, bye." She turned around and walked to the door, Shadow and left leaving Sonic's house.

Marjarie walked through the door, followed by Arnold and Shadow, Roxanne stepping inside last. Marjarie shouted, "Em! C'mere, we need to talk!" Roxanne flipped the green hair that framed her pretty face behind her should as she watched Emily ran down the stairs. She stopped at the bottom, staring at Roxanne. Arnold kneeled down to Emily's height and said, "Now, Emmy, I know this may be hard for you to understand, but—" "Hello, Anney!" Emily ran up to Roxanne and hugged her tightly. Roxanne picked up her little sister and hugged her back. Shadow smiled at this sight and looked at Roxanne, she smiled warmly back at him. "Hello, Emmy."

This moment gave Roxanne a lot to think about. She died four days ago, and was given a second chance at life. Sure, she wasn't the same physically, but, then again, she also wasn't the same person. This adventure changed her; it made her braver, it made her stronger. And it made her appreciate the little things more; like her friends, her family, even down to the beauty of the world and the warmth of the sun. She learned not to hold grudges since life was too short. She was given a second chance at life, to live, to love. She had to make the most of it for she had to do what she could to save the planet. She was given a second chance and now she knew what she had to do; she has to help her friends protect this world, she owes it to everyone, especially Sonic and Shadow. She will stand by her friends through thick and thin, no matter the cost, for what cost there was, she already lost it once, and if it means to protect the world, she will risk it again…

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I am finally finished! Yay! Well, I hope you liked it! If you did, don't worry, its not over yet, I will soon write a sequel called _Into The Darkness_. When I do, please check it out. Don't forget to read and review! It means a lot!


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